Secret of the Silver Bow Part III: TimeRiding
by To Thine Own Self Be True101
Summary: Shamrock Orion Clover fell of a cliff. Simple right? Wrong. He fell of a cliff and was sent back in time. Not to far, just to 2001, but what happens when he has to help a group of time travelers in the American Revolution to get home,and he has no memory?
1. Nothing to Remember

**Okay I don't usually like to begin with a long Authors note, but I have to here. As lots of you (or those of you who read my notes in the previous one) I am moving soon. So I have literally six weeks to get this up. Fortunately there are only six chapters, unfortunately until August or Late July I will be out of commission. The way I have this planned I will get the last chapter out the day before I get on a fourteen hour flight (Good planning right?) The next one will not be up for a very long, long time. I am trying to get the other one written but I don't know how long that's going to take.**

**This one is also technically a crossover of PJO and a series called TimeRiders, great books read them and you might understand a bit more, but if you haven't read them that's okay too. Feel free to ask questions!**

**I don't own PJO or TimeRiders**

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Secret of the Silver Bow Part III: Of Time Riding and Trench Wars

One

Key – _The Wild_

**_The Conscious_**

**_The Instinct_**

_Shamrock_

Nothing to Remember

_I spend my life becoming invisible, It's hard to maintain, and it's hard to get by, I don't recall fight or flight setting in_  
~ Neko Case

Grace

It took them over an hour to find her, and when she was found by someone. Her knees were pulled up to her chest and her chin was resting on them, her eyes were wide with fear and the person wasn't sure what to do, which was fitting seeing as that someone just happened to be Nico. He seemed to be a bit annoyed that she wouldn't say anything but he lead her back to Camp. By this time the whole camp was awake and at breakfast.

"I found her Chiron." He said his deep voice an emotionless void, like that of the underworld. "There was no sign of Shamrock though." The Hunters, Artemis and Apollo looked up.

"Grace what happened?" Thalia's voice made it clear she expected to be answered, and would be, Grace looked at her, tears once again welling up in her green eyes. Lady Artemis seemed too stunned to speak at the moment, she was more worried about her son then Grace's sanity. If anything in recent months that seemed to have been crumbling. The look on Grace's face though was enough to tell her it was bad, a whole new level of bad, not just Shamrock bad, but worse, if that was possible.

"H-he f-fell. I-I'm so sorry my Lady." Grace whimpered, before breaking down in sobs. Thalia led her to the table and tried to get more out of her. It was bad, Lady Artemis knew that now, Grace didn't cry over guys.

"What? Where did he fall?" Artemis said the panic now more evident in her voice.

"Oh, Um Artemis." Nico spoke up, his voice very grim it was clear that he knew what was going on. "There was a cliff is that what you mean Grace?" Grace looked at him and nodded. Lady Artemis let out a feral howl that was both frightening and heart breaking, before Apollo or anyone else could stop her she had changed into wolf form and raced out of the pavilion. Grace sat down and stared at her food, but it would be a long time before she even felt hungry.

There was the gnawing feeling of guilt in her stomach, and an empty feeling in her heart that she had not felt in a long time the feeling of having the rug pulled out from under here, again. The same feeling that had settled itself in the pit of her stomach like a stone, when she saw her brothers burned corpse once he was removed from the wreckage of the fire, the one that remained there for many years. It was agony.

The rest of the day, seemed to pass in a blur, she spent it on the archery range, alone, shooting arrow after arrow into the targets. She did this until she couldn't take it anymore and she sat down crying. After about twenty minutes she dried her tears and went back to the cabin, the rest of the hunt was gone, but the cabin itself seemed to grieve for him. It was quite and dark, the blinds and curtains were both closed tightly and the beds made in the hunter style, the entire cabin seemed dead. She was completely alone.

The camp was mostly quiet, there were no classes that day. They were all out searching for the body. Grace knew there wouldn't be anything but she didn't tell them that, because even though most of the campers didn't know or like Shamrock they had been to many funerals without bodies after the titan war to let this one go unchecked.

Why? Why her? Hadn't she had enough pain, and suffering come her way? She would ask herself this question during the painful weeks ahead, she would ask herself this more than she should have.

She wanted nothing more at that moment then Shamrock back at their side telling them he was fine, hugging her tightly and muttering in her ear that it was all a big misunderstanding, but with Sham that was highly unlikely. In the evening there was a knock at the door and Percy was standing there with Annabeth, both had grim looks on their face's and it was clear they had found no body.

"Can we come in?" Percy asked, Grace remained completely silent but stood back to let them in. Lilly who was seated on the bed stood up shakily, her eyes were red, her curls un brushed, she hadn't even changed out of her pajamas, and a wolf pendant swung about her neck, there were tear tracks down her face and she had clearly been crying.

"Are you Percy?" Lilly asked her voice weak, as though she didn't care who he was or why he was here. She probably didn't care.

"Yeah, are you Shamrock's sister?" Percy asked carefully so as not to upset her.

"Yeah, but we were friends first." Lilly said wiping her eyes and sniffing.

"Oh, could we prepare a funeral?" Percy asked.

"You should wait for Lady Artemis to get back before you do that." Grace snapped, but it was really more that she didn't want to believe he was dead, she wanted to believe that he'd found some way out of this mess. That he was okay somewhere out there, and that he would come home. She had to hope because right now there seemed to be none and if there wasn't any hope left then her sanity would crumble, slowly.

Artemis

It would however be a long time until Lady Artemis returned, longer than anyone thought she would neglect her hunters for. By the time there was even discussion of a funeral, she was already in Maine and showed no sign of stopping, she turned west towards Alaska and before she took one more step she disappeared into moonlight, and was blown away.

Days would pass and no one would see hide nor hair of her, but after about a week and a half she returned to a physical form and disappeared into the garden of solitude and would speak to no one. None of them understood why bother talking to them about it? They couldn't fix her problem so she shouldn't cry to them about it, that was what she had been taught as a child 'if no one can fix it and you know that don't cry over it' she figured it still applied here and Hera would get angry at her if she mentioned it. She felt twelve years old again, hiding from her step mother in the gardens of solitude, crying as ichor trickled down her face from Hera's nails, which were more like talons.

She didn't care if Athena tried the logical approach, saying that it was probably quick and painless. She didn't care if Hera lost her temper and screamed at her and hit her. She most certainly care didn't care if Apollo tried to cheer her up with a song, those things only made her angry. She screamed at Athena to leave her alone, she broke four of Hera's ribs and told Apollo his music, poetry and what not was a load of crap and to give it up.

If she couldn't have Shamrock there was only one person left who could possibly console her, Orion. Her friend and lover, she could never be angry at him, it wasn't his fault her son was dead (It wasn't Apollo, Athena or Hera's fault either that was just pent up anger) He was dead though and Hades didn't fancy the idea of letting him out of the Underworld even for a few days. So Apollo stuck her in the back of the sun chariot and flew her west, even there in the company of Orion she said very little.

"I am sorry about your child Lady Artemis." Orion said, trying his best to console her by wrapping an arm around her, it was only then that she turned her sad silver eyes on him and said;

"Artemis, it's just Artemis." It was barely more than a whisper but that was the most she had spoken in two weeks. Even that was enough for Apollo; she had to be getting better. So he left her down there with Orion.

Things didn't go as well as hoped, she stayed silent. They would 'hunt' in the day (If you could call hunting when everything is already dead) and she would be silent, they would eat, also in silence, then she would lie down and go to sleep. As much as Orion tried to hide it, for her sake, he was worried sick about her.

At this point even Hades was worried; he loved his niece even if he didn't always show it. Next to Poseidon he had been the closest thing to a father Artemis had. It's not like Zeus ever showed her affection or even remembered her name, on her ninth birthday he had called her Athena, so don't expect him to play the daddy role. She was the kind of kid that you had to love; when she was younger she would smile at almost anyone, even him. Then when she was twelve things changed, her relationship with Hera got even rockier and Apollo and her, who had once been very close, grew farther and farther apart. He watched her become like an island, alone in the fast Ocean of the world and she closed off her boarders refusing to let anyone in for fear of getting hurt.

Even Hades hadn't seen Artemis this upset before, even when Orion died that was bad but this was horrible. She had he connection with her child severed in just fifteen seconds. Something no one should ever have to experience.

After a few days in the Underworld she left, and Poseidon was the next one to attempt to comfort her, but she had become so silent and closed in that even he couldn't get through to her. It was hopeless. It had been three weeks and he was still controlling the tides.

Apollo

Apollo grieved very differently from anyone. He kept up with his duties, unlike his sister whom the Hunters had been taking turns driving for. He did however go home every night and just look around the house. It was empty and silent, he'd been in the house alone before but there was always that feeling that he would be back. Now that the little tyrant that had controlled most of his life was gone the house was empty, cold, and lifeless, he had no reason to be here, but he couldn't bring himself to go to his palace on Olympus.

He kept seeing images of little Shamrock in the house. Lying in his bed as Apollo played a lullaby he had written just for him on the Lyre; Running around like a wild child, completely naked as Apollo chased him around the house (he was a fast three year old) because he didn't want a bath. Ten year-old Sham standing with his arms crossed, scowling (as usual) about being told not to hunt. Then he saw him and the hunters there after the Volterra incident, the happiest he had ever seen Shamrock.

He opened the door to Shamrocks room. The bed was made boot camp style, the way he had been taught in military school (It's a long story, and Apollo didn't mean to forget he had left him there for a full year!) and there was a chest at the foot of it. The dresser across from it was gathering dust along with the rest of the room. No one had slept here in weeks but now it really felt empty, it really felt like he was gone. This time Apollo couldn't go visit, this time he was really alone here.

He sighed and closed the door to Shamrock's room and locked it. He wouldn't be able to go in there again. He climbed the ladder to the attic and in a puff of dust as he turned on the old, dusty lamp he saw Sham's old crib, it was painted a sliver color, with stars and the moon on the head board, it had faded over the years and the sheets, which still covered the mattress because Apollo had been too lazy to take them off when Sham moved to a bed when he was five, (He was much smaller than the average kid) had crescent moons all over them. His mind flashed to an image of Sham as a baby.

The room could have been any other infant's room. It was painted baby blue, the changing table and dresser were painted silver, there was a crescent moon and the constellations painted on one side of the room, near the crib. In the crib slept a small baby (Almost too small for his age), a tuft of Auburn hair on his head, his onesie was blue and he had a small scowl on his face (even as a baby a scowl seemed permanently carved on his face) like his dreams confused him and he didn't like it. The boy's big lamp like silver eyes opened and instead of crying he merely looked up scowling at the mobile of the ancient Greek gods hanging above his head, his eyes fixated on the one of Artemis, as though he wanted her and not Apollo.

Tears welled in the corners of Apollo's blue eyes; it was hard to imagine that he would never see Shamrock again. Even if he had driven him crazy for years on end with his endless escapades (What he would give for Sham to be on one of those against the rules hunting trips) he still loved him, perhaps the grief was worse for Apollo because he had raised the boy. Apollo had never told Shamrock that he nearly put him in an orphanage for the first few years of life, he also never told him that he never once regretted raising him. He never told him how much he loved him. He never told him how much he reminded him of his father, which was strange because he was so much like Artemis. Artemis, it was hard to say though, Artemis did love him more than Apollo had seen her love anything else. Even more then Artemis loved him, which hurt to think about, but they were mother and child they were supposed to be close.

Lilly

The first day Lilly cried, more then she wanted to admit. She had lost a friend, one of the first one she's had in a _long_ time. She called Jake and told him the news but he offered little comfort, afterwards she spent most of the day at the canoe lake watching the naiads weave, at around noon, Nico showed up.

"Are you just going to sit there all day?" He asked. She jumped and turned around, when she saw it was only Nico she sighed.

"I don't know what else to do; he was my brother you know." She whispered. Nico looked up at her in surprise. "Apollo told me after Lady Artemis ran out of the pavilion, that he had us separated and I was raised by Poseidon because we would provoke each other's powers."

"Oh, it's not easy to lose a sibling." Nico sat down next to her and sighed, like he knew what she meant.

"He wasn't _really_ my brother; just because he was a blood relation doesn't mean I thought of him as one, he was always just a friend to me nothing more nothing less." She shrugged and leaned her head on Nico who jumped but didn't resist.

"I guess but it's no use grieving about him." Nico whispered, putting an arm around her.

"What do you mean?" Lilly asked puzzled.

"Well would he want us too? No he'd want us to go on living out lives because it's what we were meant to do. I learned that the dead don't like it when you get too twisted up in grief." He said darkly like he had a bad experience with the dead once. "Besides we don't even know if he's really dead."

"Of course we do, he fell off a cliff over a hundred yards then hit the water." Lilly exclaimed, tears welling up in her eyes again.

"Grace never saw him hit the water. She saw a flash of silver light then he was gone, and I could feel it if he was dead, but something's not right here. It's as if someone is playing a deadly game with fate. Like they are trying to cause him trouble, but not enough to kill him." Nico was frustrated.

"Who would do that?" Lilly wiped her eyes with one hand

"Easy, someone who wanted revenge for something he or maybe one of his parents did or possibly Chaos."

"Chaos?"

"An immortal being that causes, chaos." Nico raised his eyebrows.

"Oh. But a lot of people don't like Artemis." Lilly pointed out, it was true she had killed more Greek hunters then anyone else, and Lilly was prepared to bet that they didn't like her very much.

"Yeah but I could narrow it down to a few." Nico frowned, like he knew something they didn't

"Like who?" Lilly asked.

"It's not my place to tell you that now come on we should get going, you need to return to your home for now." He stood up and vanished into the shadows.

"_We_? Who's we? _You_ just disappeared _I_ am still right here!" Lilly said. Nico suddenly reappeared, and coughed.

"Right, forgot you can't do that okay _now_ we leave." He grabbed her hand and they both disappeared into the shadows.

The Hunt

The hunt as a whole behaved quite oddly, none of them really knew how to take his 'death' seeing as they had only just started to warm up to him. They all seemed like they were in a state of shock too frozen to do much more than their daily routine. They got up made the bed, went to breakfast did their morning archery lessons, went to lunch, taught archery in the afternoon, went to shower, went to dinner, and then to bed. Even Chiron found it strange how they didn't even complain when they had to give lessons, but they plainly shot who ever tried to flirt with them or speak to them really.

Other than the state of shock things seemed pretty status quo for their little group, they fought with campers (Next to silently) and refused to let the Apollo cabin lecture them on archery. After a few days they snapped out of it and mostly returned to their normal selves. With the exception of Grace and Thalia.

Thalia was just a bit harsher and distorted, which was more because no one had any idea where Lady Artemis was and this was known to upset her a lot. She tried to run things the way Lady Artemis would have them run, but this was her first time without Lady Artemis around for more than a week. She wasn't Zoe, she couldn't keep the hunters constantly on their toes, even though she tried her hardest the hunters had fallen into a slump, and she didn't really know what to do. It was times like this that she felt like she had done something wrong, like she didn't belong here, but she had nowhere else to go, she didn't have any choice.

Grace just seemed kind of lost. Like she didn't really know what to do in this situation, she had a vacant look in her eyes like something was gone. It took her a few days to speak again but she didn't cry in public after the day of the 'accident', she would talk and act much like she had before, hardened, not letting anyone in and like she was completely alone in the world. She beat up even more Apollo campers then normal which is saying something as she usually beat up whichever one came he way. What's worse is she beat herself up about it, constantly telling herself that it was all her fault that everyone she knew and loved was dead. Her family, her best friend, who was next? Who could she trust not to leave her?

What the hunt didn't know however is that Shamrock was very much alive, he was in a time and place that was much more dangerous than here, and he may have gotten himself into more trouble than ever…

?

A harsh light hit my face, and I blinked a few times. I was lying on a bunk and three kids were staring at me, two girls and a boy. The oldest was the girl who looked like she was a tech geek; she had glasses on, frizzy red hair and was maybe eighteen. The boy was sixteen or seventeen and his dark brown hair and brown eyes looked at me like he wondered where I came from, and the youngest girl had Carmel skin, black hair and didn't seem to care about me what so ever. She just seemed mildly annoyed, and angry at me.

"Hello." The boy said, he had a thick accent, an _Irish_ accent. I sat up and looked at him.

"Are you Grace?" I asked.

"That's a girl's name!" He snapped. "My name is Liam O'Connor, what's yours?"

"It's-" I stopped. "I don't know. I-I can't remember."

"Oh, well this is Maddy, and Sal." He introduced, Maddy, the girl with glasses smiled.

"Is there something we can call you?" She asked carefully like I was a small child, I didn't like that I wasn't a six year old. Was I? No, at least I didn't _think_ I was a six year old.

"Um… Orion." I said, frowning.

"That's a stupid name." Sal said.

"Sal, be nice, I know you haven't slept in two days but you could be nice." Maddy scolded.

"Why haven't you slept?" I asked.

"You were screaming in your sleep a lot." Sal got up and walked away. Liam yawned.

"Where am I?" I asked.

He looked up at me. "New York, September 10, 2001."

"Oh, thanks." I said, I didn't really know what the date was supposed to do for me, but it felt important, like something big was about to happen. Liam nodded and handed me a bowl of dry cereal. "Do you have any milk?"

"No, sorry. So do you remember anything?" He asked curiously. I shook my head.

"Just this." I reached into my pocket and pulled out a picture of a red haired girl, lying gin the grass, looking up at me. "Her name is Grace, I think."

"Was she your girlfriend?" He asked

"I don't know, all I know is, she's important and I have to get back to her. Oh, and I don't think I'm from around here." I sat up and put the bowl on the side table. "It sounds familiar, is it a national holiday? The presidents birthday? Was the president assassinated?"

"Um, not exactly. " He said, rubbing the back of his head.

"What did I scream about in my sleep?" I asked.

"Most of it was in a language none of us could identify though Bob said that it might be some very old dialect of Greek; the bits that were in English were about Grace." Liam grinned. "Only I heard those parts though so don't worry I won't tell the girls, they'll tease you to no end they will."

I stood up, I was a little shaky at first but I got my balance and got my first good look around this place it was dull and the bricks were crumbling quite a bit. The four beds all had metal frames, like you might see in a prison and on the one next to me there was a picture taped up, it was in black and white and fuzzy. They really needed to add some… pizazz to this place.

"You live here?" I asked warily, if they did I felt really bad for them, it was so depressing, like prison, or an orphanage or prison that was for orphans.

"Not, exactly, we're time travelers." Maddy said.

"Yeah sure you are and I'm a magical pony in magical pony land." I said skeptically.

"No really, we watch out for changes here in our time then we go back and correct them." She insisted.

"Is this true?" I rolled my eyes

"Yes." Liam said.

"Then how is that possible?"

"Well in 2041 a man created a time machine, but when he saw the power it had he destroyed the machine and all his notes but it was too late the damage had been done so they recruited a bunch of people like us. To use the time travel abilities to be able to correct other people's mistakes, it has worked so far. The people they choose though have to 'die' we can't be missed. Liam was rescued from the _Titanic_ I was rescued from a plane crash, and Sal was rescued from a fire. We won't be missed because we'll be assumed dead." Maddy explained.

"Why should I believe you?" I asked.

"It's your choice but you already know too much so if you leave we will have to kill you." Liam said.

"Ouch." I said.

Maddy whacked him on the back of the head. "No we won't have to kill you but as much as you might not like it you've been recruited. Welcome to the team Orion."

So after they shared that little bit of information (Which they _ought_ to have explained at the beginning) I got the 'Grand' tour. The headquarters was four rooms. That was it, a bathroom; the shower was old and rusty, according to Maddy if you wanted to have enough hot water you had to shower in five minutes. The toilet seat had fallen off and the sink gave you a trickle of water.

The living room was small but nicer than the bathroom, Sal, a huge monster guy and a huge monster girl were watching a movie in Hindi on the Television which was a little fuzzy but not bad. They had painted over the bricks and a pale yellow color now covered them. There was a throw rug under a coffee table, there was a counter along one wall, with another sink (With _much_ better water flow might I add) a stove and a coffee maker.

The last room was dark and the lights that were on were kept quite dim, along one wall were computers and tech stuff. On the other wall were four tanks, filled with a livid gel solution. The first two tanks were empty and the last two had what looked like monkeys floating in them but when I got closer I saw that they one was human. A baby; maybe nine months old. The other was unrecognizable.

"Is that a fetus?" I asked.

"Yep, about eight weeks into development." Maddy said proudly as though she was the mother.

"Why?" I asked honestly this was going to make me quite sick. Who puts human fetuses in a tank to look at? That is just sick and twisted

"They're genetically engineered to be stronger, larger, and more efficient than humans. They also have a computer instead of a brain, they're organic robots." Maddy said.

"Yep our little robot kids." Liam smiled.

"If you don't mind me asking, but I am going to anyway; whose fetuses are they?" I asked.

Maddy shrugged. "Somebodies in the future I guess."

"Wouldn't the mother miss her child?" I wondered.

"I like to think that they were given up willingly but I honestly don't know." Maddy whispered. She seemed sad so Liam put an arm around her.

"Of course they were." He muttered. I felt like an intruder, they all knew this life and had accepted it as their own but I didn't accept it. It wasn't my life there had to be more that I couldn't remember.

"Come on," Maddy said. "Let's go watch the movie with Sal."

I had no idea the _Titanic_ came in Hindi. I guess it did, I wasn't personally fan of the movie, in Hindi I don't know if I've ever seen it in English. Personally I thought some of the tragedy and romance were taken away but it was enough to bring Liam to the brink of tears. According to Sal, Liam was a bit of a softy, and terrified of water. I guess if you live through something it makes it much harder to see.

After the movie was over Liam muttered something about going to bed and Sal went off to shower. Maddy seemed distracted, she had been since I asked where the fetus' came from.

"Hey Maddy?" I asked.

She jumped. "Yeah Orion?"

"Are you and Liam…" I trailed off.

She blushed and shook her head. "No, we're just friends."

"Okay." I could tell she knew I didn't believe her. "I'm going to bed."

The bed that was prepared for me was the one above Liam's bunk, there was no ladder so I just climbed up the side. I lay there for quite some time, I heard Sal muttering in Hindi to herself, Maddy rolling around in her sleep and Liam whimpering. Finally after what felt like hours, I drifted off to sleep.

Camp of the Hunters, Maine 2001

Artemis

Something was wrong she could feel it. She sensed another form that should not be here, it was like there was another half of her. She would have to investigate.

"Zoe. I want you to take Grace and Emily to investigate this source, it is coming from Manhattan." She ordered.

Zoe bowed deeply "Yes Milady. Grace, Emily come." The two hunters stood up.

Grace brushed her waist length red braid behind her. "We will find it and kill it."

"Good, good." Lady Artemis muttered.

The three hunters ran out of the campsite and towards their target, but Lady Artemis couldn't help but wonder if she ought to have gone after this one herself.

Shamrock/ Orion

When I woke the next day Liam, Sal and Maddy were up and their beds were made, I decided to follow their lead. I made my bed in Army Boot Camp fashion, it just seemed right. Since I didn't have any pajama's I just put the dress thing on that was in the bag next to my bed and went out to the main room. Maddy and Liam were talking in hushed voices in one corner. Maddy seemed to be tracing patterns on the back of Liam's hand, which was on the counter.

I sat on the couch next to Sal, Becks and Bob, the two giant people, who I guessed were siblings, I had been explained that they were the product of the genetic engineering and had a robot brain. Becks' long dark hair was in a ponytail behind her and she looked at me and raised her eyebrows in such a way that made forget she was a robot for a minute.

"Orion, are you okay?" Becks inquired.

"Yeah. Sal?" I asked. "What's going on with them?" I gestured to Maddy and Liam.

"Oh the usual they've been whispering together for weeks. It doesn't really bother me anymore. They argue sometimes." Sal explained. Their voices rose and it was clear they were arguing about something.

"Why do they argue so much?" I asked.

"I don't know it's only gotten worse since we found out time travel kills. Liam always seemed a bit stressed though. Particularly when Becks was around Maddy, and Maddy well she and Beck get along but I think she doesn't like how much attention Becks gets from Liam." Sal sighed. "Maddy gets really stressed out a lot; it's her job to keep us all safe which in recent weeks has only gotten harder and harder."  
"They're like an old married couple." I commented.

"It's true, and look, now they start yelling." As if on cue Maddy and Liam's voices rose to a yell. "Then Liam will walk out and Maddy will pull the curtains around her bunk, and two hours from now things will be fine."

"Maddy!" Liam said. "Time travel is killing me not you!"

"Oh this is new stuff." Sal frowned. "it's usually about little things like the mess around here and things like that.

"Liam just let me go back and do the training mission with him!" Maddy pleaded.

"No, this is my job and I intend to do it to the best of my ability before I die and you can't stop that." Liam shouted!

"This isn't good." Sal muttered. "Hey you guys! Stop, you two fight way too much, and we have a new guy!"

"Fine. Sal take Orion and go… exploring!" Maddy barked. Sal shut up, nodded and motioned for me to fallow her out the door. It was clear Maddy wasn't normally like this and Sal wasn't used to it. The morning was bright and the warm late summer sun felt familiar, like I knew the sun personally. We walked out from the archway and crossed the Williamsburg bridge. I thought I could feel someone fallowing us, I turned but all I saw was a flash of red and I caught a flowered scent on the wind. Lilacs.

"Did you smell that?" I asked.

"Oh the stink, that's just the city." Sal told me.

"No, the Lilac?" I asked.

"No I didn't." She frowned. I scowled but fallowed her, after a few blocks we were in a denser part of the city, there was a crowd that Sal navigated like she knew where certain people were going to be.

"You know this city pretty well." I commented.

"Well when you relive the same two days you do learn the city." She laughed.

"Same two days?" I asked.

"Yep, same two day's. Only our bubble is spared, we don't do the same thing every day but the other people do. They can keep living their lives though, they move on." Sal seemed a little sad. "We don't."

I was about to comfort her in some way when I smelled it again. The faint scent of Lilacs, in New York of all places. I looked across the street and saw three girls scanning the crowd. One had bright red hair and the other two very dark. One however caught my eye, the dark haired one with the silver circlet on her head. She looked like royalty, as if everyone here were below her.

"They've never been here." Sal remarked.

"Maybe you just never noticed. See now their gone." I said. We continued until we came to a supermarket. We walked in and Sal grabbed Rice Crispy Cereal, Milk, Eggs and after that I pretty much stopped paying attention. We checked out and Sal lead me to Times Square.

It looked magnificent, the signs were bright and advertised everything from Coke-a-Cola, to Broadway's the Little Mermaid. It was bright, loud, crowded and I hated it. There was no escaping the throng of people and I was starting to hyperventilate.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

"We are being fallowed, and in this crowd I can't see who or where they are."

"Orion I'm sure we're fine, there are a lot of people here and that's it. If you're that worried we can go home." Sal brushed her long dark hair over her shoulder and turned. Seeing as I had no choice but to fallow her I decided that would be best.

As we walked out of Time Square I smelled Lilac again. This time I was sure I saw something, small and in a pack move out of the corner of my eye.

_Run!_

I reached over and grabbed Sal's hand, before she could say anything I was dragging her out of Time Square. I kept running but it still seemed to take hours to reach the bridge. Sal was panting and sweating, it was clear she had never run this far in her life. I knew that I couldn't keep this up for much longer. I didn't know how far I could go but Sal looked like she was going to collapse from lack of oxygen. I slowed down and Sal started to catch her breath.

After a few minutes she said; "Why did you do that?"

"We are being fallowed, I know that." I muttered.

"Can we walk? Please." Sal pleaded, I sighed and decided that since we were closer to the base then we had been, I gave in.

"Fine, but let's just move. We haven't shaken them." We started to walk; Sal was still a bit short of breath so we went slow. Her brow had beads of sweat on it, and it was then I realized I wasn't tired, or sweaty. "Interesting."

"What?" She asked.

"Well I don't feel tired, short of breath or sweaty." I said.

"Orion, we can worry about your weird body type later let's just move." She complained I obliged and fallowed.

"Your base isn't very big." I remarked. "If you have all this time travel technology stuff why don't you have a bigger base?"

"We aren't an ostentatious group." She muttered. "Besides we have to keep a relatively low profile, it's just what we do. Oh look we made it back before-"She was cut off as we heard a crash; I wheeled around and saw one of the large towers in flames.

"Sal! Look!" I said.

"It happens every Tuesday we relive. 9/11." She muttered.

"What a terrible place to be stuck." I said, still in shock. At least I knew why the date was important now, I was sure this day would get remembered.

"Well its worst for Maddy, her cousin was killed just a few seconds ago, Liam doesn't really get it and I'm not even supposed to be alive now. It's horrible yes but I only remember it because I see it every day. It makes me sad though, all the people who won't ever see their children again, all the fathers who will never meet their infants, all the mothers who will never have their children." Tears welled in her eyes but she blinked them away and looked at me. "See look there's the door." She pointed and sure enough I saw our little archway.

I breathed a sigh of relief, it was just a hundred meters away, we were fine. "Good." I whispered. "We should be in the clear now." I heard a noise and turned to see what it was, but as I did someone grabbed me and held a knife to my throat. I glance at Sal who was whimpering, as a dark haired girl held a knife to her throat, the other one with the tiara smirked.

Then an unmistakably Irish voice said; "Think again."


	2. My Training Goes Very Very Wrong

**Well here we go, Chapter two, let's find out what happens with Sham and the Hunters shall we...**

**I don't Own PJO or TimeRiders**

**Thanks to Gabriela for having me read TimeRiders and giving me this idea!  
**

**To Iris for supporting me at school and listening to the somewhat constant chatter.**

**To Arabella for supporting me on the other side of the world!**

**To Saphier for being enthusiastic to hear more about Grace and Sham. **

**To Bella and Belle for making me take Saturday (Admittedly my biggest writing day) off to see a movie with them.**

**And to anyone who bothers to review this!**

* * *

Two

My Training Goes Very, Very Wrong

_Oh I tend to disappear here and there  
So concentrate and you'll feel me everywhere  
And well fill the metro skies with country air  
If you're lost when you close your eyes I'll meet you there  
-Owl City_

_Key – The Wild_

**_The Conscious_**

**_The Instinct_**

_Shamrock_

Grace (2012)

She rolled out of bed and instinctively looked over at Shamrocks bed, it lay cold and empty as it had been for three days now. It was hard to come to terms with the fact that he was really gone, but she had. It's not like she had much of a choice. She changed quickly, then made her way to the door but she stopped, before leaving she straightened Shamrock's Pillows and blanket. There now it was clean and crisp, just the way Shamrock would have liked it.

The January morning air was cool and crisp. It felt good to get out in the early morning light and be able to feel the morning. There weren't many times like that, where she could honestly feel daylight on her skin. Still something was gone, she knew what it was, she had lost her best friend. Sure things hadn't been _great_ between them at the time, if anything they were a little awkward, but he was still her friend.

It was then that Grace began to _really_ feel the weight of this loss. It was very different then when she had lost her family because now there were two dozen others to share the grief with now, but she had never felt so alone in the cold cruel world. Sham had always been one to take a challenge head on, recklessly and blindly, even if it was going to get him killed. Grace had only known him a few weeks but those few weeks were some of the craziest of her life, but they were still the best. Wait, if she had only known him for a few weeks why did she remember attacking him in 2001? When he ought to have been six. No that couldn't be right, she distinctly remembered a 16 year old guy, Grace, Zoe and Emily had been ordered to hunt down in New York. The guy called himself Orion, but she was so sure it was Shamrock…

Orion (2001)

_This isn't good._ I thought.

**_Oh gee you think!_** My conscious screamed at me. **_We know them I'm telling you._**

_We? Who is _we?_ There is _me_ and then there is _you_. There is no 'We.' _ I retorted.

**_Whatever! _**

I got the feeling it was right though, we did know them and I know I recognized the red head, her green eyes full or disgust. The two dark one's just kind of blended together, but I thought I knew both of them, it was tugging in the back of my mind, aching to be free, but something was holding it back.

"I know you!" I insisted.

"Impossible!" Scoffed the one with the knife to my throat. The red head. I would have struggled but with a knife pressed to my throat that was kind of hard to do. I tried wiggling but that only caused me pain.

"I do, you're, you're… oh come on the annoying one!" I tried to remember I really did but I just couldn't.

"It's Grace!" She snapped, her grip on me wavering just long enough for me to slip out of her grip and turn to face her. She was so familiar, her green eyes the same color as the soft lush grass, her red hair the same color as a fire and the splash of freckles across her nose were all familiar, now if only I knew where from, that would be nice to know.

"Grace! I know you! I know you!" Then I did something really, really stupid, possibly the most stupid thing I have ever done in my life. I pulled her to me and kissed her. She pulled away, punched me between the eyes and before I could register what happened, dots did a little jig in front of my eyes and I fell unconscious to the floor.

Sal

"You are right, he cannot be the one we are looking for, release them and come, we must tell Lady Artemis." The one with the circlet said. Grace was about to say something but instead she bent over and vomited.

"Yuck." She scowled. She stood up and the girls moved away. Sal ducked into the house and called; "Liam! Orion got punched in the face by a girl and is unconscious would you help me move him?"

"Right." She heard him say. "Coming!" Together they brought him inside and put him back on his bunk. 'Why was he punched.

"He kissed a girl and she didn't take it too kindly." Sal panted still recovering from their run and the incident back there.

"Where?" He asked.

"Outside our door." Liam stared at her. "Oh they were very quiet about it." Orion stirred and opened his eyes.

Orion

I woke in a daze and seeing double of everything. It took me a moment to get my bearings and when I did I noticed that Liam, Maddy and Sal were bent over me looking concerned. I blinked.

"What happened?" I asked.

"You were punched." Maddy explained. "You shouldn't try to sit up." I sat up. "I just said you shouldn't sit up."

"Yes but who listens to that, my first instinct when someone tells me not to do something is to go and do what they told me not to." I informed. "So I was punched?"

"By a girl." Liam nodded.

"After you kissed her. and then she threw up." Sal muttered. This didn't make me feel any better, if anything it made me feel worse than I did before. I made a mental note never to kiss anyone again.

"If it's any consolation Becks could rip my head off." Liam tried.

"It's not really." I said. "Look could I be left alone? I have to think some things over."

"Sure, come on you guys. We can watch _Harry Potter_." Maddy grabbed them.

"Oh not _again!_" Liam complained.

"Yes again." Maddy drug the two of them out of the room.

I sighed and leaned back against my bunk. _Grace. Grace, where do I know a Grace? _ There was no way she was the Grace from my picture. It just wasn't possible, that Grace was nice, but they were so a like, that it was scary.I turned it around in my mind. I was getting angry, I just wanted to punch something. I stood up, growled and punched the wall. A very stunned Maddy, and Liam looked at me through the hole I had just made. I fathomed that they knew that I was in a bad mood due to the fact that they both turned back to the Television without saying a word to me, but Liam's eyebrows were trying to escape, and they were nearly to the boarder of his hair line. When Sal walked in she peered at me, raised a quizzical eyebrow and sat down. She opened her mouth but before she could say anything Maddy held up a hand in Don't-Ask gesture.

I sat back down on the edge of the bed and exhaled. After a few minutes I lay down. It was around 10:00 am and the sky was filled with columns of smoke. I had been so sure I knew her, I looked around the bleak room. The walls were crumbling brick (Except for the wall I had punched _that_ one was obviously dry wall.) and there were no posters hung up or even a photograph or two except for the fuzzy black and white one that looked more like a used napkin. The only signs that people lived here were the beds, all four were made with their small touches. Liam made his like you would on the cabin of a ship, Sal made hers neat and clean like in a girls room, and Maddy just kind of threw her blanket and pillows on the bed. The throw rug was a faded purple and green flower. That was it, nothing on my bed, nothing, but the forlorn grayish blue comforter.

I walked silently into the room where Maddy and the others were, all sitting on the couch. They were obviously close friends, they all sat huddled together watching the movie, like siblings. I immediately decided I wouldn't do that, I wouldn't get close to them. I moved silently over to the cupboard and pulled out a pencil and stack of paper. Then I moved back to my bunk and began to draw what I remember. I drew Grace with her knife to my throat, then I drew her lying in the grass. I had a vague memory of a group of girls. That was it.

I could hear the credits rolling and Liam came in and looked over my shoulder. I was busy drawing a large pine tree with a dragon around it. I remembered it, clear as day but only that image, not where it was, or what it was from. I wished I did though.

"Where's that?" Liam asked.

"I don't know." I shrugged. I had the feeling that there was a sign next to the tree that was supposed to say something but I didn't know what. It was all so important, I remembered only non-important things, everything I needed to know seemed to be buried deeper in my memory, the place's I couldn't access.

"Mads sent me back here to talk to you about a training mission." He said. I nodded, not saying anything but implicitly signaling him to go on. "It's just to train you to be able to handle time travel. That's it." I looked up at him cheerlessly.

"I'm not from here. I have to go home." I said succinctly then turned back to my drawing. It was rude but I wasn't in the mood to be polite.

"We just want you to be ready." He said.

I frowned. "No. I'm not going to do it. If you can find out where I'm from, and send me back there then maybe I'll do it. Maybe, but not definitely."

"Orion, if we send you back, you will have to die." He said softly. This had obviously caused him some problems. "We only recruit people who would die otherwise, those who won't be missed because they're dead."

"Do you even know where I came from?" I wondered.

"No." He admitted "I'm sure Maddy can figure it our though, she's smart enough for it."

I raised my eyebrows questioningly "If that was meant to be a threat then I would work on your foreboding."

"It wasn't I'm just saying that if you want to know, the person who could figure it out is Maddy." He grinned a goofy lopsided grin.

"Okay then. Thank you." I stood up and walked into the back room. Maddy was seated at the computer playing chess with Bob. "Maddy?"

She answered but didn't look up "yes Orion?" She was obviously still a little unhappy with Liam or maybe me, but what did I do?

"Can you figure it out?" I asked.

"Yes I suppose it's possible." She instantly knew what I was talking about, which was nice because I didn't really want to explain to her what Liam had to me.

"Then let's get started." I sat down. She blinked.

"Um okay. What technology do you remember?" She asked

"Um, IPod, Ipad, Laptop, television, and cell phone." I said. She jotted that down.

"Definitely from the future, who is the last president you remember?" She asked.

"Obama." I answered.

"Okay so between 2008-2016." She muttered. "How much of your past do you remember?"

"Um, there was a red head girl, Grace. A group of a Dozen girls in silver hunting tunics, with bows and arrows, and their hair was braided and they hated men." I said.

"That sounds, ancient Greek or like an all-girls school filled with feminists." She was clearly puzzled. "Anyway continue."

"Then there is one person other than Grace who stood out amongst the rest. She had long auburn hair, silver eyes, she was a about my height, looked maybe twelve, except for in her eyes which appeared to be thousands of years old, and she was the leader of this group of girls." I said.

"On a scale of one to ten how important do you believe she was?" Maddy asked, Sal was drawing something.

"Eleven." I said.

"Okay then, I would guess from around my time but I can't be sure." Maddy sighed in defeat.

"Did she look like this?" Sal held up her drawing, it looked like the Auburn haired girl I remembered.

I nodded. "Yes she looked like that but I wish I knew who they were." I said.

"Orion, who do you think Grace was too you?" Maddy choose her words carefully.

I didn't want to answer, I felt that if I shared what I thought she was that it would disappear and leave me forever. Then I would be alone.

After some hesitation I said; "I don't know."

"Yes you do. You don't have to tell me though, I understand why you would keep that from us. You just need the right time." Maddy nodded she did understand, and a look of guilt crossed her face. "Okay then let's get some lunch."

"Oh! Can we get Indian food?" Sal asked.

"If you want, but you and Orion are going to pick it up." She said, Sal stood up and grabbed my hand, and drug me out the door.

"Gods what was that for?" I asked.

"Sorry, Maddy's just seemed a bit stressed right now so I thought it would be best to get mister amnesiac out of her way." Sal explained as she released her grip on my hand and slowed to a walking pace.

"Mister Amnesiac?" I raised my eyebrows and looked at her.

"Yeah, I mean like how do we even know if Orion is your real name?" She asked.

"I guess…" I rubbed my arm; it felt stronger than the other one, like I had lifted something heavy in it that the other one hadn't had to hold.

"So do you know anything about self-defense?" She asked.

"Why?" I wondered.

"Well you just seem like the kind of guy who would, muscled, like you spend lots of time in the forest or fighting people." She shrugged.

"I don't really know, but I guess I wouldn't know until I tried." I said. She kept quizzing me on random things, like my favorite planet (To which I answered the moon, and she said that it was just a rock in earth's orbit) my favorite color (Silver) my favorite name (I didn't know how to answer that one.) my favorite animal, eventually I started answering with the first thing that came to mind. Take the question about my favorite fruit I said "Celery." She frowned and told me that wasn't a fruit and moved on.

When we finally made it back to the archway I was pretty sure I had told her everything I knew about the world around us. I shot Maddy a-what-did-I-do-to-you? Look and sulked into the dining room. Liam was seated in one of the chairs around the table, I took the one next to him, Maddy and Sal sat out the food, which we ate straight from the take out boxes.

Why did they all have to be so nice? Would it really kill them to be mean for once? That way maybe I wouldn't feel so guilty for not wanting to get along well with them. Then I got my wish when Sal said I should fight Becks outside.

"Come on Sal, I can't be that mean to the poor guy." Liam said. He was way to good natured. "He'd get killed."

This made me angry so I said; "I'll do it." They all looked at me like I was a mad man, which at this point I very well may have been.

"It's your death." Maddy said.

Liam turned to Becks "Beck's you are going to fight Orion after lunch, don't kill him or hurt him too much."

"Affirmative Liam." Becks nodded.

We stepped outside and I got into a fighting stance it felt good, like I'd done this before. Like I was back doing what I was born to do.

_Oh yes, yes! YES! _ Everything inside me screamed I smiled. The way the other three looked at me it was demonic, and twisted. _Come on we can show them that we aren't hopeless!_

_I've told you there is no we there is me and you not we**!**_ Then I lunged at Becks. She had a serious advantage here, she was big and she didn't have to think, but I had this little voice in my head. Which I should get checked out.

_Left! Right! Kick! Duck! _I did as it told, then I got another urge _hold out your left arm!_ I did as it told me to, then a long, ornately carved Silver Bow was in my hand. It seemed to be made out of moonlight, the wood was light as a feather, but the string was tight enough to send an arrow flying like a bullet, the silver paint glowed like the moon and as I reached to pull back on the string a silver arrow appeared in my hand, I knocked it and pulled back. It flew into the wall and lodged itself in a wooden sign, but the power of the arrow dictated that it should have broken a normal bow. It wasn't a normal bow though it was special, now if only I knew why it was so special.

**_He's back!_**Another voice said in my head.

_Sh! Conscious shut up! _The previous voice said.

**_Right, sorry!_** I froze, so did Becks.

Sal was the one to break the silence "What is that?" Her mouth was agape, Maddy nodded clearly impressed, and Liam nodded in satisfaction.

"I-I don't know." It felt so right to hold the bow in my hand. I had a feeling I should know why the bow was suddenly there.

"What's a Shamrock?" Sal asked reading the back of the bow I shrugged.

"I don't know." I said.

"A shamrock is a clover." Liam explained. "It's the national emblem of Ireland. Me mam loved them."

"Yeah but what's the word doing on the back of Orion's bow?" Sal asked.

"I would say it was his name but shamrock isn't a name, it's probably pointless." Maddy shrugged. "Who's that?"

I whipped around and the three girls were back. "Oh great the Girl Scouts." I rolled my eyes. "If you're here to beat me up you've already accomplished that, if it's to say you're sorry (Which I doubt) I don't accept, if it's to tell me about the bow then go right ahead."

"No we are only wondering where you got the bow?" The one called Grace asked.

"I wish I knew. Bye." I turned on my heel and walked back into the house. Liam and the others fallowed me. As soon as we were back in the house I ran into the bed room and started to rip my pillow to shreds, with my hands and teeth like and animal.

"Remind me not to get on the bad side of Orion." Liam muttered to Maddy. The bow had disappeared and the pillow was in shreds, feathers covered the bed, me and the surrounding three feet. I was panting hard as I felt pent up anger build up inside and begin to boil over.

"I wish-"I stopped I was about to say I wish that I was home, but I didn't know where home was. I sat down on the bed and Maddy came over. "Go away!" I snarled at her. She nodded mutely then walked out of the room, Sal in her wake. Liam lingered though.

"I know you're stressed." He snarled. "I know what it's like to know that you'll never see your family again, but don't talk that way to Maddy. Ever." I guess he did have some fight in him.

I snapped. "You don't know what it's like! I don't even remember who my family is! For all I know I'm the forbidden son of some random Greek Virgin Goddess, I run around in the forest and get into trouble all the time! For all I know Grace could be some off limits maiden hunter who I have fallen for (Gods I hope not) and my dad could be some random crazy guy whom I've never meet and will never meet!"

Liam nodded. "I don't care. Just don't speak like that to Maddy!" He walked out of the room leaving me alone with the voices in my head.

**_That was harsh!_**Voice two said.

_Yeah could you be meaner?_The first voice said.

"Shut up!" I yelled.

**Fine, fine **the voices chorused. Then they left me to myself.

I was _not_ a happy camper, these people were way too nice, I was starting to feel bad about not being friends. I lay down on the bed and even though it was about one in the afternoon I fell asleep.

Liam

After an hour or so Maddy told him to go and wake Orion up. He walked into the bedroom and Orion was stretched out on the bed. He _did_ seem like the kind of guy to sleep on his problems. Liam walked back into the living room.

"He was asleep." He sat down next to Maddy.

"Well wake him up, we have to get training started." She said.

"Fine but if I get my arm snapped your to blame." He grumbled.

Orion/Shamrock

When Liam woke me up I was not very happy, I scowled and rolled out of the bed. Liam winced like he half expected me to kill him or something. I walked into the back room where Sal was filling the fishbowl.

"You're late." She remarked.

I scowled "I had a cat nap."

"Well get into your under clothes." Sal said.

"What?" I raised my eyebrows in protest. I hadn't thought that I would enjoy this at all but now that she was telling me to get into my underwear I_ knew _ I wouldn't hate it, I would _detest_ it.

"Well to minimize contamination levels we have to go in out underwear." Maddy said, coming out in a black t-shirt and shorts. "Almost ready Sal?"

"Yeah just let the guys and Becks get ready, I'll set the coordinates." Sal leapt down and turned off the hose. Becks came out dressed exactly like Maddy.

"How come they get to wear t-shirts?" I asked. Liam started to take his shirt off.

"Because," He said. "They're Ladies." The way he said all of this made me think that I should know it already. I stood there awkwardly for a few minutes; Beck cocked her head and stared at me.

"Why don't you get ready?" She wondered. I sighed; she was definitely not accustomed to Human behavior. Which meant she was really not accustomed to my behavior.

"Because it's… weird, I thought we weren't supposed to undress in front of each other." I said.

"We aren't." Maddy said.

"These are just special circumstances." Liam said.

"On this training mission we are going to Dallas Texas." Maddy explained, completely ignoring the fact that I wasn't done discussing this topic.

"Wait how is that time travel?" I asked.

"Let me finish!" She snapped. Red heads, so-o-o temperamental! "We are going to Dallas Texas, 1963."

"Why?" I asked. "Why don't we just hop on a plane and go there in our time, we can see a football game, or a movie. Why does it have to be 1963?"

"Shut up!" Maddy yelled. "We are _going_ to stop the assassination of President Kennedy for a few minutes then we are going to correct our mistake."

"Why wouldn't the world be much better if we just left him alive?" I asked.

"That's the problem! Then someone else would have to go back and fix it! We can't just go changing history, willy nilly! That would be a disaster!" She yelled.

"But-"I started, but Liam held up a hand in a stop-talking-now gesture. I nodded.

"Good boy, he understands now. Get in your boxers. Now." The tone of Maddy' voice told me that if I argued she would set Beck's on me.

Finally I stood at the edge of the tank, in my green shamrock boxer shorts. Sal looked like she was trying not to laugh, Maddy looked like she was freezing and Liam looked terrified.

"Am I _that_ frightening?" I asked.

"No, Liam's afraid of water." Becks said. "Now get in or I am under orders to pull you in." I sighed and lowered myself into the freezing water. I gripped the side.

"When the count gets down to five take a deep breath and go under the water." Maddy instructed.

I nodded. "How long do we have?"

"Fifteen seconds. Ten seconds. Five – ABORT!" Beck screamed suddenly "ABORT! ABORT!" I felt my chest seize up in panic.

Liam looked like a trapped wild animal, and like he was about to pass out or start attacking us. I saw Maddy reach for his hand; her eyes were full of fear too, but not fear for her life. Liam looked like he was afraid we would die here, which now that I think about, we could have.

Sal's hand reached for the abort button, but before she could press it we were sucked into a whirl of white…

Lilly

White, all white. Pure panic flooded Lilly's body and she sat bolt upright in bed, breathing heavily, seat making her shirt stick to her back, and running down her face, she wiped it off and looked around.

Her room, the white curtains fluttering in the breeze, which was coming through the open window, the moon light shining on to the window seat. She rolled out of bed and closed the window, deciding that she needed to calm down she went down stairs and opened the fridge. She poured herself a glass of milk and sat down at the kitchen table. As she drank the milk she had a bit of rare thinking time.

She couldn't believe it had been a full week since he had been gone; there was no sign of Lady Artemis or her brother. She still had a hard time believing they were related, he was a rebel, she over thought things, he was reckless, she was cautious, he didn't care what happened to him, she wanted to make it past High School.

She looked over at the phone and decided to call Grace, even though it was three in the morning there she had a feeling Grace would answer. She ran the tap and tossed in a drachma.

"Grace O'Donally, Camp Half-Blood." She requested. The Iris message showed Grace, but she was asleep, curled on top of Shamrock's blankets, a book lying on the bed next to her. Lilly sighed, great. She ran her hand through the mist and decided to try Jake. She dialed the number on the phone.

"Lilly?" Sam's voice answered.

"Oh hey Sam, is Jake there?" She asked.

"No it's midnight, he's sleeping." Sam sounded annoyed.

"Oh, sorry, I just thought maybe he was on patrol. Can you wake him up?" She asked.

"I would but he's not here." He sighed.

"But you just said he was asleep." Lilly countered.

"Yeah, at the Cullen's and I know how much you hate them so I won't bother telling you to call them. Night Lilly." He said.

"Night Sam." She hung up the phone. She knew she wasn't going to get any more sleep so she walked into the living room and turned the television on. She didn't really pay any attention to it; it was more to make her feel like she wasn't so alone in the world.

_I wish-_ Lilly stopped herself, she was about to say 'I wish Poseidon was here' and she had told herself several years ago (Fine when she was seven) that she would never rely on him for anything again.

**_You need someone_** a voice said in her head.

_Lady Artemis?_She asked.

**_No dear, I am your Animal Instinct, but you may call me Annie._**

_So you can't help me?_She wondered.

**_Alas, no. Only Conscious, or Wild could do that and since Conscious had gone silent and Wild is quite they can't help you. _**

_Oh, why Annie?_

**_I'll explain another time, but I have to go now Lilly. Remember you're never alone, the ghosts are always there._**

Before Lilly could protest her mind went silent. The ghosts. What the hades was that supposed to mean? The ghosts? Then she got it.

"Nico!" She said aloud. Then she heard a laugh.

"Present and accounted for." Then out of the shadow's stepped Nico Di Angelo. Black hair tousled, aviator's jacket unzipped, and sword in hand.

She jumped. "Nico, what are you doing in my house?" She asked.

"Well I was actually shadow traveling when I heard you so I came here instead. Now do you mind telling me why you need me?" He asked, but before she could stop herself she ran over and hugged him. Awkwardly, he hugged her back.

"I'm alone. I don't have anyone but the voices in my head." She found herself saying. "They aren't even that helpful!"

"Well um I think you can take clozapine for the voices." He said.

"No not like that, it's my instinct that wants to be called Annie." She said.

"Um, okay? Well why am I here?" He asked.

Nico

As soon as he asked that she was crying, if there was one thing he hated more than people, light, and things that are alive it was crying things. To be particular, crying _girls_. He tried to comfort her but in truth he just wasn't that good at it.

"He's gone, Nico. Shamrock is gone. My brother is gone." She kept saying, he guided her over to the couch and sat her down.

"Well if it makes you feel any better, he might not be." He whispered.

"You keep saying that but how can you know that?" She cried looking up at him her, metallic green eyes boring into his soul.

"Well, I've been searching the Elysium, and The Fields of Asphodel, I even checked the Fields of Punishment. He wasn't there; I asked the judges for every name they've been through and spent time at the entrance. If he was dead he would have been through by now." He explained.

"Well then where is he?" Lilly pressed.

"I don't know I've devoted time to trying to find out what that flash of silver light that Grace saw was and from what Athena, and Apollo say it looked like a time portal was opened." Nico grimaced.

"A time portal? To where?" She asked.

"We don't know, we've been working on that, but more importantly we've been working on who opened it. If we can find them they can tell us where he was sent, and maybe how to get him back." He said.

"Why are you doing all that?" She asked. "I'm grateful but it seems so hopeless, why bother?"

"Because I know what it's like to lose someone you care for deeply and as much as I hate your mom –No offence to Lady Artemis- I wouldn't wish that on anyone. It's the worst thing in the world. If someone had done that for me when Bianca died then maybe I would be more at ease, but I know where Bianca is. I'm okay. You guys don't even know where he is, or if he'll come back. Lilly, I promise I will do anything, everything and more to find out what happened to Shamrock." He said the pain evedent in his dark eyes.

"Thank you Nico." She hugged him. "Thank you so much." Nico hugged her for a while longer and then realized she had fallen asleep, he stood up and pulled a blanket over her. She looked peaceful which was rare.

"You're welcome Lilly. Sweet Dreams." He walked over to an arm chair and fell asleep.

The Underworld

"Have you done it?" A clocked figure asked, gazing into a glass ball that sat on a table.

"Yes, I have, don't worry you soon will have your revenge on Lady Artemis." A voice said from the shadows, though the accent was light it sounded like Grace, only deeper and like it had dark intentions. It was deffinatly male though.

"Good, good, now when to bring him home…"

* * *

**Who is this mysterious figurein the underworld? What happened to Sham, Becks, Maddy, and Liam? What's going on between Lilly and Nico? Why am I asking these things, I'm the author?**

**Okay that said, I will see you next week my loyal readers (Because if you read this then you read the other two!)**

****-To Thine Own Self Be True101


	3. Come Away to The Water

**I think this is the only one I haven't been totally anxious to Update. Probably because I just finished the draft of the next one. It's hard to think that this chapter marks the half way point. That's right folks, you are know half way done with Secret of the Silver Bow. It's hard to imagine right? Imagine how I felt. **

**Thanks to Iris, for support**

**To Arabella for support on the other side of the will, and by the way I know just as much about politics as I do Quantum Physics**

**Thanks to Gabrielle for having me read TimeRiders and giving me this idea, **

**To Belle and Bella for reminding me to take a nice break every now and then.  
**

**Thanks to Saphier for encouraging me to keep writing this story when I seriously considered just killing Shamrock at the end, but she was right he still has a story to tell and I am the only one who can tell it.**

* * *

Three

Come Away to the Water

_Come away little lamb  
Come away to the slaughter  
- Maroon 5_

_Key – The Wild_

**_The Conscious_**

**_The Instinct_**

_Shamrock_

Shamrock/Orion

We were floating in white space. I was vaguely aware of Maddy and Liam suspended next to me. There were grayish white, things like cloth that had been shredded then died the color of elephants(I know good description right? Well there was no other way to describe them) were floating towards us. They seemed to have eerily human like face's which were chalk white, soulless eyes and terrible mouths, which seemed to be covered in an eerie blue substance and sharp pointed fangs, but the rest of their bodies were ghostly, like torn fabric suspended in midair. Just as one reached me I was yanked sharply away.

I hit the ground with a _thud!_ Becks was next to me, but she was up and quickly analyzing our surroundings. Liam stood up and looked around; Maddy was coughing as though she had involuntarily swallowed some water. The smell hit me. It was like, well, animal feces. Sorry there is no other pleasant way to describe it there are however lots of more unpleasant ways to describe it. I noticed that we appeared to have landed in an ally way.

"Where are we?" Maddy wondered standing up shakily, Liam reached out and steadied.

"We appear to be in Trenton New Jersey, December, 15 1776." Becks said, her eyes flashing as thousands of gigabytes of information processed through her brain.

"We over shot the mark on this one a bit. Was that supposed to happen?" I shivered

"Yeah Orion," Maddy started sarcastically. "It was supposed to happen and we're also supposed to be flying in circles right now!"

"You need to work on your comeback's you could have just stated no." I grumbled. Becks was gone. "Whoa, where did she go?" Liam shrugged and Maddy sighed.

"Who knows. It's just a normal day for the TimeRiders." She grumbled. Liam squeezed her hand supportively and I got the feeling this was something much deeper than I could understand or should try to understand.

I got my answer a few minutes late when she returned with her arms full of colonial style clothing. She put the boys stuff in front of Liam and I and the girls things next to Maddy. The boy's things weren't so bad I guess, but the girls' stuff had way too many pieces. Maddy picked up what looked like a very uncomfortable shirt with strings laced through it.

"What is this?" She asked.

"That's a corset so it is." Liam said. "Me mam had one for things like dinner parties."

"Oh." Maddy blushed. Becks looked at me.

"Why is she blushing?" She wondered.

I shrugged. "I don't know, I'm just as clueless as you in this department." I honestly had no idea why she would be so embarrassed.

"Okay, you boys turn around and dress, Becks and I will face the other way and get dressed." Maddy instructed, Liam obeyed like an obedient little puppy.

I blinked. "Why?"

"Because you have too, you can't watch girls undress." Maddy said.

"Why not?" I wondered.

"Just turn around!" She insisted. "We'll work on social barriers later!"

"Fine, fine." I turned around and started to get dressed. "I'm all done, can I turn around now?"

"No!" Maddy yelled. We waited, and waited and waited some more.

"Mads, are you two almost done, we've been waiting for fifteen minutes!" Liam said.

"It's this stupid corset it takes –OW! Becks ribs!" Maddy cried. Liam turned and I heard the pullind of strings like when you loosen shoe laces.

"There, is that better?" Liam asked.

"Yeah." Maddy said, and Liam turned back around. A few minutes later we got the okay to turn around. Liam let out a low whistle.

"Not bad Maddy!" He exclaimed, Maddy blushed a bit. She dress was made of flowered pattern and the skirt flowed was wide, the corset pushed certain parts of her body together and added a lot more, well girl. I scowled.

"What?" Liam asked.

"I just never really found girls all that appealing, or guys really." I shrugged.

"Oh, well I think you look great Mads!" Liam smiled like an idiot.

"Thanks." She said, Liam held out his arm and we walked out of the ally. I trailed a bit behind the others.

_You have to make friends with them to get home._

_ Conscious?_

_No I am the Wild. _

_Oh. So why should I be their friends?_

_Because, like it or not, Sha- Orion, you have to get home and they're your best chance. _

_What did you call me?_

_Orion._

_No you almost called me something else_

_Annoying?_

_Shut up._

_Fine. Fine._

"Orion!" Maddy caught me just as I was about to walk into a wall. "What were you doing?"

"Talking to the voices in my head, why?" I frowned.

"Well take medicine or something because you get all glassy and go on, like, autopilot or something." She said.

"Jay-sus, Maddy we've been over this, we don't say 'like' in every other sentence!" Liam was clearly exasperated, and Maddy clearly didn't care.

"Just focus okay Orion? Okay now that we know when we are, let's try not to mess up history. Okay?" Maddy looked sternly at me, like she thought I might be a trouble maker. I didn't know if I was or not so I just nodded.

We walked past a grocery store, well okay fine a general store, or whatever they called it back then. Anyway it was on the outskirts of the town there was a large field, I wanted to go exploring but Maddy said we had to stay as close as possible to there we appeared so that we could be located. I sighed and obliged to go back into the town.

"Have they ever heard of indoor plumbing?" I asked.

"Not for another hundred and fifty years or so." Maddy said.

"Perfect. What if we have to pee?" I asked.

"Think of it this way; _you_ don't have to take off a dress." She patted my shoulder and we walked back into town.

We ended up making camp in a shed. It was small and not very comfortable; I ended up squashed between Becks and the wall. Which is not a position I recommend. As night fell it grew colder so, we huddled even closer together to keep warm, and then finally I fell into an uneasy sleep.

Sal

"Where did they go Bob?" She screamed. "What did I do?"

"Sal I would, relax we can merely wait for the machine to reset then use the coordinates from the previous time frame to get them back." Bob's voice was so calm she almost believed it for a second.

"Bob, it's not that easy. It's never that easy." She said her eyes were filled with tears and she was panicking.

"Well perhaps this time it will be." He said.

"No Bob it won't! It's _never_ been or going to be that simple!" She stormed out of the arch way and slammed the door behind her. "So this how Maddy felt that time we killed Liam… ouch." It hurt like something she had never experienced, the pain was sharp and fresh, she could have just killed the only two people she had in this world. She sat down on the steps and cried.

Grace

Amongst her fellow hunters things went back to normal, except for the fact that Lady Artemis hadn't been seen or heard from in a week and a half. The other night Grace had been sitting on Shamrock's bed looking at a Scrapbook that Apollo had given her. It was full of photos of Shamrock through his life. Some cute, some strange but they were all undeniably Shamrock.

The day Apollo found him lying in a patch of clovers, clearly the first thing he had done was snap a picture of sleeping baby Shamrock. There was a photo of his first birthday; he had the signature Shamrock Scowl on his face, standing in his crib, clad in his silver onesie, it was the cutest thing she had ever seen. The picture of him on his fifth birthday he was standing in the yard, scowling. Then her favorite was the most recent one in the album, it was after they had returned from Volterra, he was asleep on the couch and was again scowling (He scowled in almost every picture), but it looked much cuter when he was asleep.

The big problem with Lady Artemis being gone was really that they couldn't leave camp and she was surrounded by memories of him. One day she went to the cliff where she had last seen him and saw something, a small patch of clover. That was it. Her last straw was gone. She broke, she had held it together before but now she was broken and for the second time in her life she was completely alone. She sat down next to the clover, as tears welled in her eyes she wondered, _why him? Why not me?_ She supposed she got the worse end of the deal. She always got the worst end of the deal

It was like losing her family all over again. Grace felt that centuries old hatred bubble up inside her again. Hatred that was aimed right at her. She had lived like this for a hundred and fifteen years, give or take a few, and when Shamrock came around, she thought he might be her chance to get past that. She was wrong; it had only brought more hatred towards herself. A greater wish to die and just be at peace but she wasn't lucky enough to die, and she wasn't stupid enough to commit suicide.

Orion/Shamrock

I woke with a strange amount of room; I yawned, I stretched and opened my eyes. Everyone was gone, I was alone in a shed, and freezing. Walked out of the shed and found the others staring at what was in the street, the British army. Their red coats clean and crisp, their guns on their shoulders and the drummer boy, who couldn't have been older then fourteen marching in the front keeping a very rhythmic and mournful beat going.

"How could I have been so stupid!" Maddy whisper yelled.

"What?" Liam and I asked in unison she motioned for us to be quitter.

Maddy's voice dropped to a whisper "This is the revolutionary war, we're just 11 days from Washington's crossing the Delaware!"

"Oh." I understood now.

"So?" Liam wondered.

"If we screw up history even just a little bit, to let Sal know where we are then we could change the course of the war, thus changing the course of American history. There is not a worse time period to be in, this time is so fragile that Foster told us they only send people here when they absolutely have to. Which means that we are breaking every rule in the book just by standing here." Maddy explained.

"If I seem to recall," Liam whispered. "the agency didn't give us a rule book they just saved us from our deaths, said 'oh here you go you have to protect the time stream which will eventually kill you, but at least you didn't freeze to death!' What's that expression out of the frying pan into the oven?"

"Fire it's 'Out of the frying pan and into the fire." Maddy said. "I guess your right the agency did throw us into the snake pit." She sat down, dejectedly, Liam sat next to her and squeezed her hand, this was another one of those things I wouldn't ever get and should never try to get.

Becks' eyebrows raised. "I detect Tychon particles from in the area."

"Sal!" Maddy said looking up. "She's using the coordinates from the last time portal to find us! Wow, good for Sal!"

"Didn't you say there was one an hour after we arrived, one twenty four hours later, another two weeks later and then the six month one?" I asked,

Maddy frowned. It was her turn to be confused. "So?"

"So, we have to wait two weeks for the next one." I said.

Her face fell. "Oh no! He's right." I smiled at this. "We're stuck here for two weeks!" My smile quickly changed to a scowl.

"Bad?" Becks asked.

"Yeah, bad." She said. "If we change history at all then we will have rocked the boat and that's it for us."

We decided to find the girls something more comfortable to wear. We figured if we had to we could make Maddy look like a boy. She looked like a girl when she was dressed like one but we could bind her chest if we had to and she lacked any curve so that was handy. Becks though would have to wear a dress. Liam managed to find plain farm girl clothing for Maddy, she was glad that it was easier to put on and didn't have a corset.

As soon as they were dressed again we decided to walk around town a bit, well actually Becks said to get out of town to 'bring down contamination risk' so Becks ended up carrying us across a river, out of the town. I wasn't sure why but as soon as I saw the surface of the river that was full of ice chunks I felt panic rise up in my chest. Liam looked like he was about to hyperventilate. Beck ended up carrying us all across, hopping on the ice.

Once we were all on the other side we were cold and shivering. We walked along the river for a mile or so and found an army camp set up. We strolled on in and one of the men called to us.

"You, come here!" He shouted. I pointed to us and he nodded I decided it was best to obey and strolled over "Where did you come from?"

"Sir, me and my brother, Liam here, would like to sign into the army. We're sixteen, plenty old enough sir." I said. I swear it wasn't a lie, I just avoided the truth.

"Well you two can, but they can't they're girls." He said.

"We wouldn't have brought them along sir except for the fact that our parents are both dead and they had nowhere else to go." I avoided the truth again.

"Hm. I 'll have to talk to General Washington about that." The man said.

"Talk to me about what." A tall man strolled up to us; he was wearing a military uniform and looked like a general.

"Oh General Washington, sir, these two boys wish to sign on, the problem is they've got nowhere for their sisters to go." The man explained hastily.

"Well then, they may stay with the farmer's wife and help out." HE said, "Come I'll lead them there myself."

"General Washington, sir, could we escort them too?" Liam asked.

"Oh boys I assure you they are in good hands." The other man said.

"I know but they're sisters." Liam protested.

"Lay off them Colonel, come you may escort your sisters. "Not wanting to go against the general's word we fallowed hastily. Once we were out of camp General Washington started asking Liam and I questions.

"Join the army?" Maddy whispered. "You are an idiot! We could miss the next time window or get killed or, you and Liam could get hurt, or sick!"

"Oh my gods! Calm down, has anyone ever told you that you have a tendancy to overreact? I was improvising. Do you _want_ to get shot? If you do it's your death." I hissed

"I highly doubt we would have gotten shot if you had just kept your mouth shut! Now you and Liam have a much bigger chance of getting shot!" She smacked the back of my head.

"Ow." I rubbed the spot where she had smacked.

"Do you have any of your own weapons?" The general spoke up.

"I do sir." I spoke up. I held out my hand, and felt power surging through me, in a flash of silver the bow appeared in my hand. I'm not sure what he saw but it clearly wasn't a flash of light because he just stared like he missed that part.

"Where did you get that boy? I have seen only one like it in my entire life, and that is the sacred bow of Artemis herself." Washington's eyes widened.

"I don't know where I got it sir, but can you tell me how you know someone named Artemis?" I wondered.

"My mother, she's Athena, tell me do you know who that is?" I shook my head. "It's a very long story, one for another time, but now tell me is your name Shamrock?"

"No sir, it's Orion." I answered.

"Well keep the bow hidden from the men; you'll have to use a gun."

We walked the rest of the way in uncomfortable silence. After we said our good byes to the girls we walked in silence back to the camp, but I felt odd. Like there was something just below the surface of my memory aching to be free again, and there was something that wouldn't let it be free. General Washington turned to talk to Liam.

I felt eyes on me and heard a soft voice say something I couldn't makes out. I turned to the forest. There were eyes, piercing silver, moon like, orbs of eyes, and they were following me. I was now officially really creeped out.

Artemis 1776

Artemis watched the two boys and the man, her cold silver eyes never leaving the auburn haired one for a moment. The boy seemed so familiar, the way he walked, the way he watched the world around him, all of these things were similar to the way she would act. It was somewhat unnerving. Zoe shifted from foot to foot restlessly, and Sirius whined. She could tell they both wanted the same thing, to hunt and kill.

She held up one hand. "Patience Zoe, we will observe them for a while." Her soft ladylike voice was so low no human could have heard it and yet the boy whipped his head around, a look of utter terror in his eyes. Eyes that were metallic, only two immortals had eyes like that. She gritted her teeth and snarled "Apollo."

Shamrock/Orion 3rd person

Orion heard voices, low inaudible voices. Voices all the same though, first just the woman's voice then the man's voice. They were arguing about something, the woman seemed to be very angry and the man didn't appear to think he had done anything wrong and they were so low that he couldn't make out the words, but every instinct was screaming at him turn and run, run as fast as he could and get out of this place. Orion's eyes conveyed one emotion. Terror. He didn't know why but his instincts told him that he should fear these people, and that if he crossed their paths in this time he would never leave, he would never get home. He would be dead in this era and gone, wiped out in the next.

He managed to maintain control and not run away, but it was a painfully slow journey back to camp. The snow had started to fall and it should have been considered a beautiful night. Yet, our young hero couldn't shake the feeling that he knew the owner of those silver eyes.

1st person

We were stuck in a tent with too many people in it and not enough blankets. We were handed one small thin "blanket" and told to lay down. I did but Liam didn't. He frowned as though something bothered him about the situation we were in.

"It's a bit crowded in here don't you think?" He asked one of the men and they all froze.

"Son are you _British_?" The man he had been talking too asked.

"I'm _Irish,_ so I am. I am deffinately not British." He snapped, I sensed some bitterness there, but decided not to mention it. Soon Liam and the men in our tent were asleep and every one of them was snoring. I couldn't fall asleep though, it was cold but that didn't bother me too much I could live, what really bothered me was the fenced in feeling and the snoring. I snuck out of my tent and looked up at the stars.

The night was clear and my breath made puffs in the air, like fog or smoke. A fire would have been nice, but if I lit one then I would be caught, yelled at and shoved back into the tent. I wrapped my arms around myself to try and stay warm, I glanced at Orion, the constellation that held my name.

I felt something close to the surface of my memories. Something that was trying to break through, maybe I just had to trigger one memory and the others would follow. Maybe they would all come back in a wave. Maybe – I felt a pang of fear – maybe they wouldn't come back at all. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the picture I had drawn. I hadn't told anyone that I kept it. Mostly because I didn't want them to take it away from me, the one memory I had frozen on a sheet of paper. The Grace girl lying in the grass, near a bench, it might not seem like much but that one memory was the most important thing to me right now. I didn't care about 1776, it had its problems, I had mine and neither one of us wanted to help each other.

I looked up at the moon. It was full and bright, but I couldn't shake the feeling that it was angry, at me. Which made no sense, since the moon was just a rock stuck in earth's orbit that reflects the light of the sun. I wanted to scream, I wanted to know what was wrong with me, I wanted to scream at the moon because what had I ever done to it? Why did it have to be so angry with me? I knew I didn't belong here, so the moon shouldn't act like I wanted to be here. Most of all though I wanted to scream at it for daring to look remotely like those eyes I had seen, but I knew that I couldn't scream so instead I retreated back to the tent, and fell asleep.

I woke to the men getting up and dressed, I sat up. Liam was still asleep next to me so I kicked him, he yelped and woke up.

"Jay-sus, you're almost as mean as Maddy in the morning without her coffee." He rubbed his leg where I'd kicked him. I rolled my eyes to show him I didn't really care and crawled out of the tent. The sunlight was bright and the day crisp and clear. My breath made puffs in the air, it was a beautiful day. That only made my mood fouler.

We received coffee and a bit of bread for breakfast, I sat down next to our tent, the side where no one was, I growled as Liam sat next to me. He raised an eyebrow.

"What's gotten into you?" He asked.

"Everything!" I shouted and walked away to eat my breakfast in peace. Everyone who saw me caught on that I was in a bad mood and left me alone. Eventually had to get up to learn how to fire a gun, I went and did as they told me then slunk back to my position, sitting against a fence pole, scowling at everything and everyone. I had to stay in camp and do as I was told, but something else was telling me that I didn't belong here that I had to go home.

I needed to get out of that tent, the guys in there weren't bad, they were just way too seventeen hundreds for me. I wanted a decent cup of coffee for once. Seriously someone needs to hurry up and invent espresso! Once everyone in the tent was asleep I snuck out and ran for the forest.

The cool night air in my lungs practically screamed at me too hunt something and eat it raw. Which was kind of uncivilized, but at that point I didn't care I just wanted my freedom, which was ironically a lot to ask in that time period. I scaled a tree and sat in the boughs.

Nature, lovely nature. There was a soft music playing in the background. The music, though out of place seemed just right for the atmosphere of the night. Beautiful, sweet with a tint of dark like the harbinger of something bad coming to me. I felt like something was close possibly right below me, but I was too tired to look so I leaned against the trunk and fell asleep.

_I was floating in white space, pure white space. Three figures were seated below me, a woman with curled auburn hair, silver eyes, a pointed face and ears like a nymphs . The other one was a young girl who looked like me, except she seemed to be thousands of years old, her silvery eyes looked weary as though she had been up too long and had seen too much. The third seemed to be a cross between a deer and a wolf, it had antlers, hooves, but a wolves thick busy gray fur, piercing yellow eyes, the head of a deer, razor sharp teeth and a thick busy tail. _

_ They were all talking about me, well not the deer-wolf thing. The deer-wolf thing glanced up at me and motioned for me to be quite. I nodded understanding that they could hear me._

_ "Wild, we have to give the memories back sometime." The girl who looked like me said. _

_ "Conscious I'm sorry but you know we can't do that yet." Wild argued. _

_ "I don't see why we even have to keep his memories, it seems wrong!" Conscious insisted._

_ "We let him remember her Conscious! That's enough." Wild snapped. _

_ "Why are we doing this?" Conscious prodded._

_ "Because! If we don't he'll have a mental breakdown, all that emotion is too much for him to take on!" Wild said._

_ "How? He's handled being emotionally distressed before!" Conscious argued._

_ "You don't get it! Everyone has a Conscious! He and Lilly are the only half-bloods with one of me! I know his limits, he already had feelings for Grace but if we put that on his shoulders everything will break down and he will be driven to the point of suicide!" Wild yelled._

_ "Then let's ask Instinct!" Conscious tuned to the deer-wolf thing, Instinct. "What do you think?" _

_ "I think you'd better give his memories back," It said, Conscious smiled. "Because he heard everything you just said." They both paled and looked up at me, Wild snapped her fingers and I woke._

I was falling, out of the tree. I hit the ground and groaned "Ow." I checked my body over, thankfully there were no broken bones, I would be badly bruised though.

I walked back to the camp in silence, thinking about what they had said, about keeping my memories because of an emotional breakdown. Did they really think I was that weak? I guess they did, but they weren't even real for all I knew the dream could have been just that, a dream. I lay down in my tent but I couldn't sleep.

I lay awake for a few hours and then the tent started to move. Liam was awaked this time and he went to get coffee, I felt a strange and frightening feeling like I was being hit by a wave and knocked over.

Liam

When he returned to the tent it was empty except for Orion. When he saw Orion he dropped the coffee and yelled for help. The other men rushed into the tent, and they're eyes widened at what they saw.

Orion lay on the floor, twitching violently, in a mixture of sweat and vomit. Foam was all over his mouth like a rabid animal. His green-silver eyes were wild, the pupils elongated like an animals, his teeth were unmistakably canine, like he was in some kind of partially wolf-like state. Liam dropped to his knee and tried to go over to him. Orion growled and tried to lunge forward, like a rabid animal, but was overcome by a violent fit of twitching. It was the most terrifying thing Liam had ever seen happen to a human being.

The men started to pray to god to end the poor boy's suffering as was the custom of the time. Liam couldn't help but roll his eyes, that wasn't going to help Orion right now. Finally Liam accepted that he would have to handle this one alone. He looked at the twitching body. It was horrifying. The camp medic entered the tent and gasped when he set eyes on Orion. Even the medic couldn't get near enough to him to figure out what was wrong with him.

Finally after what felt like hours Orion's eyes rolled back into his head and he dropped limply to the ground. The whole ordeal turned out to be only about ten minutes at most but it was enough so that Liam could never look at Orion the same way again. It was easily the scariest think Liam would ever see in his life.

Slowly and carefully Liam moved to clean him up a bit, he used his shirt's sleeve to wipe the foam from his mouth. Once the other men saw that he was indeed unconscious they moved to help. Slowly they cleaned Orion up and a changed his clothing.

Suddenly Orion's eyes snapped open only they no longer had that feral look to them. He still looked rather frightened but not at all like he would kill them in a heartbeat. He was breathing heavly and was in a cold sweat.

Shamrock/Orion

The next thing I knew Liam and the other men were bent over me, looking at me like I'd just had some kind of seizure.

"Are ye alright lad?" One asked.

"What happened?" I asked groggily sitting up.

"You were lying on the ground twitching, and foaming at the mouth." Liam explained. "Like you were having a seizure."

"That wasn't the strangest part though, hardly. Your eyes were the most terrifying like a mad wild animal's, deranged. As though you wanted nothing more than to kill us all." The first man said.

"Was I conscious?" I asked.

"Aye. You appeared to be but something else was in control of you some evil spirit." The man asked.

"Wild." I hissed.

"What?"

"Nothing, but I don't remember anything at all." I insisted. Honestly I swear I didn't at least I didn't remember the twitching and foaming bit.

"Orion are you going to be okay?" Liam asked.

"No." I said they all looked a little scared at that but I looked up at them silently. "I won't be okay, because that's not my name."

"What is your name son?" The man asked again.

"My name is Shamrock Orion Clover." Then I remembered…

Lilly

Her day started out normal. That was how her day's usually started, until she went up to Jake's for lunch, her world went black and the next thing she knew Jake was telling her she'd had a seizure and she was in the hospital. Nico dozed next to the hospital bed in a chair and Renesmee was asleep in Jakes lap.

"How long was I out?" She asked groggily sitting up.

"Well the seizure only lasted about ten minutes, but we called an ambulance because a) you've never had one before and b) if a seizure lasts more than five minutes that's what you're supposed to do. The Ambulance couldn't get here fast enough because of an ice storm so I ended up carrying you here; you've been out since three in the afternoon. It's nine pm." Jake explained. Nico stirred and opened his eyes beautiful dark eyes. Wait beautiful?

"Good you're awake." He said sitting up. "I don't think this was any ordinary seizure."

"What do you mean?" Lilly furrowed her brow.

"I think your connection with Shamrock was attacked very violently and suddenly." Nico started. "This could happen if one of you feels a strong sense of emotion that you aren't used to, namely love. You and your brother should both be immune to love, completely unable to feel it. You can have a crush on someone but it should never go past that, if it does then the bond has been attacked."

"Shamrock is 'dead' and in love?" Lilly asked.

"No, it Shamrock was dead then you would most likely be dead too because the bond would sever, and if you weren't dead you would be pretty sick. The chances of him being in love are small, so that most likely isn't it. The bond could also be attacked if the wild suddenly took over and not just suddenly but violently like it was trying to keep you two from finding out something important or dangerous." Nico continued. "Even that through has a small possibility unless…"

"Unless what?" She pushed.

"Unless, your brother was an amnesiac, and couldn't remember anything. If that was the case not only would the bond be attacked but the wild would take over because if he got all his memory back at once it could be very bad." Nico said.

"Is that possible?" Lilly said.

"Yeah, it's got the highest probability rate. Did you see anything unusual?" he asked.

"Yes, I saw the revolutionary military for a moment. Lilly admitted. Nico stood up.

"I have to go." Before he could be stopped he melted into the shadows.

"Half-bloods are weird." Jake said.

"Shut up dog boy!" she snapped, Apollo came in and closed a cell phone.

"Sham's funeral has been scheduled, it's February thirteenth, a week from tomorrow at noon." Apollo informed her. "We have to find him soon."

Later that night Lilly was released from the hospital, Apollo took her over to his house in New York. He instructed her to stay inside and get some sleep. She lay down on the couch; it felt wrong to go into Shamrocks room, like she was intruding. She turned on the television, _Titanic_ was on HBO. Silently she let the tears roll down her face, not for the movie, she could care less about that, but for her brother. In the last two months her life had been a mess, absolutely everything had gone wrong lately…

The Underworld.

"Give it one more week then you may bring him back." A cloaked figure ordered, a boy, maybe fourteen, bowed deeply. The figure turned to a glass ball where he could see Shamrock now. "Just wait young Shamrock until you see what I have in store for you. Then you will wish I had just let you hit the water and die. You will see that sending you back in time is not the worst thing I will do. I allowed you to be born, soon enough I shall allow you and the girl to die. I will show your mother that I may be dead but I can still hurt, kill and get my revenge."

* * *

**Okay now, this was a pretty intense chapter don't you think? I sure do, you would nod believe how long it took me to write this. I spent like a week in this, so please review, so what do you think of all this drama. Well just wait untill next week...**

**-**To Thine Own Self Be True101


	4. The Real World

**Okay, here we are another week. Which means we are one week closer to closing this part of Shamrocks life, I am one week closer to moving, and you are one chapter closer to finishing this... well I don't really know what to call this whole thing. It's not a trilogy, then what is it. A Saga? A series? What? Anyway enough of my nonsense ramblings. **

**Thanks to Iris for all her help by listening an suggesting things**

**To Sapphier for making me finish writing his story  
**

**To Gabriella for getting me to read TimeRiders  
**

**To Bella and Belle for reminding me to take a break  
**

**To Arabella for supporting from the other side of the world  
**

**I don't own PJO or TimeRiders  
**

* * *

Four

The Real World

_If we dissolve without a trace, would the real world even care?_

- _Owl City, the Real World_

Key – _The Wild_

**_The Conscious_**

**_The Instinct_**

_Shamrock_

Shamrock

I stared out over the churning water of the Delaware River which in three days we would be expected to cross. The icy water scared me but right now I wasn't really thinking about that. I was thinking about Grace and everyone here knew it. We had seen the girls a few days ago, Liam and Maddy spent the whole time we were there talking in hushed voices. I knew they were talking about me. I had become everyone's favorite subject in the last couple of days.

Liam came up behind me; he knew I knew he was there so he didn't announce himself. "Who was she?" He asked.

"Who was who?" I asked. ,

"You know." Liam tentatively came closer. "Grace?"

"Oh she was my mother's hunter." I had already explained to Liam and Maddy about the whole Demi-god deal.

"No, Shamrock what was she to _you_?" Liam asked.

"That's different," My voice dropped so low that it was barely audible.

"Not really." He pushed.

"Well I guess she was my best friend, maybe I liked her, maybe she liked me. I never found out." I whispered.

"You left her?" He wondered.

"No! Liam I fell off a cliff!" I snapped, I turned and stormed somewhere Liam wasn't. I was angry, that happens a lot, but I was mostly upset. Grace thought I was dead, she thought I would never come back. She thought I was dead and that I had left her just like everyone else she had loved and I never told her what I needed to. It hurt.

My mom was probably ready to curl in a ball and die except she was immortal and she couldn't do even that. Me her only, and admittedly, danger prone child, has fallen off a cliff, is assumed dead, and learned to fire a gun. In this time she probably didn't even know I was alive, and if she knew what I was doing she would fear for my life. Even though it wasn't the most dangerous thing I've ever done (Not by a mile!), I'm prepared to bet that me learning to fire a gun isn't real high on her 'Things Shamrock Should Do' list.

Call me crazy, but I even missed Apollo, not that I would ever tell him that. I missed his rhyming and singing. Most of all though I missed the lullaby he played when I was little, he called it "Shamrock's Lullaby" not the most creative title but it was one of the few things that could calm me down. It was one of those things that, though I loved my mom, I would never ask her to do. If I did it wouldn't have the same effect as Apollo, which was soft and comforting. My mother could be soft and comforting but Apollo was the one who had always played this lullaby, it would mess it up if mom played it.

I tried to remember the last time I had heard the lullaby, five years since he had religiously played it before bed. So I was what eleven? Ten? Yeah eleven. I was about eleven when he started staying out all night. Well, he had started doing that when I was five, but he did it more often when I turned eleven. I kind of missed the nights he used to let me sit on his lap until I fell asleep. Apollo though sometimes, he was annoying he was still family and my social structure was built around the way he acted. Which could be why Grace said I have 'social issues' and lack 'social barriers' but oh well, it's too late now!

Maddy came up behind me, these people really can't take a hint can they? Though I'll admit I was surprised to see her because she was rarely allowed in camp. It was one of their rules about having girls in a camp full of guys. "Hey,"

"Hi." I said.

"Are you okay?" She whispered.

"Yes." I lied.

"Are you?" She poked.

"No."

"Good."

"Good?"

"Well Shamrock the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. Then acceptance." She sat next to me.

"I've got to go home." I said.

"I know and in a few days Sal will bring us back and you will go home, you will I promise." She said. I nodded. Beck tapped her shoulder and she sighed "Shamrock, I wish I could stay longer but I can't so good luck I'll see you soon. Don't do anything stupid!"

I scowled and didn't answer, these were the kind of people who had different definitions of the phrase 'doing something stupid' for me doing something stupid was angering a god, for them it was probably calling the Volturi names or jumping off of a second story roof. Even jumping off my roof wasn't exactly stupid in my book.

The one guy who had described my seizure, Mr. Samson, came over to me. "Look laddie, if you go home to this girl of yours, Grace, and you tell her how you feel it will be the greatest thing you ever do, where did you say you lived?"

"Virginia." I had chosen a random state that was one of the original thirteen colonies when they started asking questions.

"Well you said she had lots of sisters?" He asked I nodded. It wasn't a lie just a variant of the truth. "You talk to her mother and father and maybe you could court her." This was laughable. I laughed.

"She would never go for that." I said.

"How do you know?" Mr. Samson asked.

"Because a) She's my best friend, and b) she's not really the falling in love type." I said. Again it wasn't a lie just a variant of the truth, I try as hard as I can to stay away from lying but sometimes you have too, like when it comes to saying 'Oh yeah I'm from the future, my mom is a Greek goddess and I want to join your army!' that would go over like a lead balloon and we would probably be accused of being possessed and then be thrown in a lake.

"You don't know that until you try." He pushed.

"Trust me; she would kill me with a paper clip if I asked her that." I said.

"A what?"

"A needle. I said needle." I insisted. By now people are pretty used to this stuff, but I'm pretty sure that if we didn't need as many people as we could get I would have been kicked out by now, but that was their problem not mine. They were the ones that choose to join this army and now they need more people, good for them, but I didn't care. I walked out of the tent, I guess I was being a little rude but I wasn't really concerned about that.

"Shamrock!" Liam yelled behind me. I turned. "Are you okay? I'm sorry about earlier, it's not my business."

"It's fine, human nature is to be curious." I shook it off. "Promise me something though. When we go to my time I wasn't you to come and meet Grace. She needs someone who understands her."

"Sure. Don't you understand her?" He asked.

"Yeah I do but some thing's I don't understand about her and I never will." I explained.

"Okay." Liam nodded. "Why do you talk like you're not human?"

"Because, I can't feel one of the basic human emotions, I can't feel love. I can care deeply for something but I don't really know what love is." I said. "I can 'love' my mother but if I think about that it's not really love, it's just a bond my mother and I have shared since I was 'born'"

"Everyone's mother love's them." He said.

"Not true, my mother hated me at first but we warmed up to each other and eventually we uncovered that ancient bond. My mother, Artemis, represents the oldest human form, the mothers bond with her child. She never had that bond until recently though so things have gotten, easier for her in that sense, sometimes though I feel like I make things harder for her." I confessed.

"I'm sure she doesn't feel that way." Liam insisted.

"She never wanted a son." I said bitterly. "She wanted a child yes but she wanted a daughter, I can't give her that. No one can until we figure out exactly how I was born."

"How were you born?" Liam asked.

"Well Apollo, my uncle said I was born during a test. That I was supposed to be Athena's but Aphrodite switched the, um" I flushed this was a really uncomfortable topic for me. I didn't like talking about children being created the normal way and the abnormal way was just as bad. "ingredients. At least that's what I've heard but I've also heard how Athena used a combination of essences, and the last way Apollo says has never been done and is using part of the godly parent's immortality, making her a bit more mortal. While still living a normal immortal life span the immortal can become sick, and tired easily they can also feel more human, their blood will still be gold but they will have a reddish bronze tint to it. The down side is that this requires the full life of the mortal, leaving no one to care for the child and killing an innocent person. Apollo used to get uncomfortable when he spoke of that one."

"What if the mortal parent was already dead?" Liam asked.

I frowned. "Well I guess that could work to. You would just use part of the soul instead of the life force."

"How do you know all of this?" Liam marveled.

"Well I lived with Apollo for sixteen years, I can recognize my own DNA, I can perform surgery," I started.

"Really?" Liam asked.

"Well in theory. I've never actually tried that. I can set a broken or fractured bone and can treat basic medical issues." I said. "Now Liam please leave me alone."

He looked like he wanted to ask more questions but he saw that I was a bit upset and thought it better to leave me alone. I was once again left to stare out over the icy waters of the Delaware.

_Where do I go from here?_

**_Shamrock this is one of those things that Emotion will have to sort out._**

_Emotion? You mean there are more than three of you?_

**_You, you are the only one who can wield emotions, the rest of us are three aspects of your being, we could feel emotions but you would be distressed if we did so we choose not to._**

_You can do that?_

**_We can do that. You have no choice._**

_Gee, thanks for your help_

**_Don't be sarcastic, it's unbecoming. _**

_I'll be sarcastic if I want to!_

**_You won't make many friends thinking like that._**

_SHUT UP! _

I knew I had to calm down a bit, I was going to storm the British Army in a few days I couldn't be worrying about what three aspects of my personality were doing. I shouldn't have to worry about that ever.

I walked back to camp and the soldiers started eyeing me wearily, like I would start having another seizure, as if it was my fault. It was getting a bit annoying to have them start praying_ every time_ they saw me. I wasn't possessed; not really, I didn't count Conscious, Wild and Instinct as possessed. I counted them as annoying.

Liam was sitting in the tent, we did a lot of that these days, there wasn't much we could do other than wait for General Washington's orders. I had recently gotten really good and cards and chess though.

"Hi." I muttered. Liam nodded.

"Hello. You ready to cross the Delaware?" He asked.

"No to be honest, I'm terrified of water." I frowned.

"You were fine in the water at headquarters." He commented.

"Well I am afraid of fast moving water, but the reality of fear states I'm not afraid of water I'm afraid of drowning." I said.

"Oh. Well then lucky you." He said.

"You're also afraid of drowning." I remarked.

"Yeah I am." He admitted.

"Why would you sign on to the Titanic?" I asked.

"Well I'm sorry for being curious!" He snapped and rolled his eyes in a very Maddy way.

"You hang out with Maddy way too much. Don't you have any guy friends?" I asked.

"Bob." He said.

"No any human guy friends." I asked.

"No." He admitted.

Grace

Call her selfish but would it kill someone to ask her what was wrong? Just once in her 115 years she wanted someone to care. Shamrock had cared, but he was dead. The funeral was in three days, and like so many before it, there would be no body to go with the shroud they had made. The shroud was made of silver cloth, a shamrock was embroidered on the front and just below that was a silver bow. On the back in a deep blue was Orion, and in a silvery yellow the moon. It hurt every time she looked at it.

Sometimes she wondered if she were to disappear would the real world even care? She was sitting on her bed, her knees pulled up to her chin, daydreaming. That was something she had done a lot of recently. The real world was too dark and had caused her too much pain, in her day dreams she could be happy.

Thalia sat on the bed next to her, pulling her out of her thoughts. "Hey."

"Hi." She answered.

"Are you okay?" Thalia asked.

"No. I'm not." She answered honestly, it was the first time someone had asked her this.

"When will you be?" Thalia wondered, it was innocent enough but it made her boil with anger.

"I will be at some point." She muttered.

"You seem to day dream a lot." Thalia commented. "Why?"

"Because reality is lovely but I don't want to live there. Whenever I live there someone dies." She explained.

"Lilly arrives later; do you think you could make up a bed for her?" Thalia asked, it was obvious this is what she wanted to know.

"Sure, she can have mine, I'm going to be elsewhere tonight." Grace muttered.

"Why?" Thalia asked.

"I need to talk to Nico and Apollo, they're keeping something from me and I don't like that." She said.

"Well just stay here tonight, Lilly can take a sleeping bag." Thalia ordered. She nodded.

Shamrock

I fell asleep, I don't know how or when but I woke up when Liam yelled in my ear. "Gods! What was that for?"

"You needed to wake up and that seemed like the fastest way to get you up." He said.

"Okay then why do I need to get up?" I asked.

"We are 'rallying the troops'" He said giving me a lopsided grin. I rolled my eyes and sat up.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because we are getting ready to cross the Delaware. It's the twenty sixth you know. We go home tomorrow!" Liam sounded happy about going home but I hardly knew where home was anymore. Home was with Grace, but was Grace even still there? She probably was, where else would she go? She didn't have another home or anyone left, even if she didn't want to she had to stay with the hunt now.

I walked out of the tent into the snowy night air. I could feel the cold wind cutting into me like knives; it would be a million times worse over the river. My breath made clouds in the air and my eyes seemed to be icicles from the cold. I shivered, more from the fear then the cold but Liam looked at me.

"Cold eh?" He shivered.

"Yeah, I guess. I'm more worried about falling in though." I cocked my head. Liam looked a little green. "Are you okay?"

"No." He shook his head and ran off, twenty seconds later I heard him vomiting. When he came back he was pale. Mr. Samson came over.

"What happened Lad?" He asked.

"Seasick." Liam muttered, wiping his mouth with his sleeve

"Seasick? We haven't even left dry land yet!" Mr. Samson cried.

"It's more just thinking about the sea that makes me sick." Liam explained.

"Well son that sounds like an issue that only you can resolve, good luck. Now though, come with me we have to load up now." Liam looked at me and I shrugged. We fallowed Mr. Samson to where the men were loading up the boats.

When I say boats I really mean, little row boats that looked like they would collapse if you touched them. This only made me more nervous about what I was going to do. The sturdiest boat was the one that General Washington was in, and it didn't really look that sturdy at all but, it was half way there. The rest of the boats though looked like they were really going to fall apart and I was a little surprised when the men stepped into one of them and shoved off without a problem. We went over to our little death trap, I stepped in and settled behind Liam and we were pushed off the shore.

I had resided to using my bow because guns were too loud and they took way too much time to lock and load. I would be dead before I even shot anything or anyone with one in the amount of time it took to load one bullet. If I had my way we'd all be using bows because it would be quieter, but of course then we would all die, because that would be like taking a knife to a gun fight, or really a bow to a gun fight. I heard a sound that made me think of a small dog but it was Liam who was whimpering in front of me.

If I was afraid, Liam was terrified. He was shaking, he'd been sick over the side twice, and we weren't half way across. I looked down at the choppy waters below me, that was a mistake, the familiar feeling of fear in the pit of my stomach flared up. I had to do this, even if I didn't like it. I tried to look on the bright side; I had a bigger chance of living then any of these people. Why? Because I was better trained, I had a weapon that could reload faster, and I was a smaller, harder, target.

There were chunks of ice floating in the river and we were nearly hit so many times that I lost count. Some were big enough to use as boats others were about the size of a cat, not so big but big enough to put a good sized hole in the side of our boat. I made silent prayers to Ares and Athena; if we had any chance of winning I needed them on our side. I wished I could have prayed to my mom but just my luck that would cause a catastrophe.

My mom; I missed her. I wanted to have her and the hunters by my side then. Our numbers would have been bigger; we would have had more bows, and a bigger chance of living. Okay fine, so I missed them too, I missed them a lot, but there was one I missed more than others. Her grassy green eyes sparkling, her red hair like a flame, Grace. If I could have had one person by my side I would have chosen her in a heartbeat, I trusted her with my life, and I stood a better chance of living if I had her instead of Liam. Frankly, Liam stood a better chance of living with me and grace on his side because at this rate I was afraid he would be dead before the battle even started.

Speaking of Liam he was being sick again. How could he still do that? He hadn't eaten anything in the last twenty four hours, because he was afraid of getting seasick and he'd still been sick four times. I guess it's one of the mysteries of life. The 'mystery' that was starting to make me feel a bit sick myself I willed my dinner to stay down because I would look weak if I threw up over the side and the last thing I need to do right now is make them think they let weaklings into the army to help them fight the British. If I looked weak not only would they think that, they would think that I was going to be a bigger problem than any help and I didn't want to cause problems.

We were only half way across the river, and the first boats were only just starting to dock. It was so early that the sun wasn't up, or was it late? I didn't really know any more. It was a day, and it was a time. I suppose later in history, or I guess the future, it would matter, but I didn't care. Right then and there I just wanted to know what time it was, but gods forbid that happen.

For a moment I almost longed for Apollo to rise over the crest, to give us a spark of hope, a new day. It wouldn't have been Apollo though, I didn't even know if any of the gods were in America yet, and if they were it was most likely just Athena and Ares anyway. I guess if it even was Apollo it wouldn't be the Apollo I know, it would be a younger, more colonial Apollo, perhaps with a white powdered wig. Gods I would pay to see Apollo dressed 18th century style! Anyway it would have reminded me that it was still there, that no matter how dark things seemed there were always new days ahead.

Okay, clearly I hang out with Apollo _way _too much, I am _never_ that poetic, at least not usually…

I looked up to where the moon ought to be, but it was covered by clouds. I couldn't see one of the millions of stars above us. I knew they were there though, they were always there. I still ached for the moon though. Would she wear a colonial dress? No she would never dress like a proper lady that went against everything she believed in. Even if it wasn't my mom here yet, it was still the moon and still something normal in the world. Unlike my life which has yet to be normal.

One of these day's I'm going to find out just who caused me all this pain. Just who did this; I am going to find out who really put me here. I am going to find out why; I am going to find out what my mother did to them. Then I am going to give them a piece of my mind, but I guess there are good things about them putting me in this world too, they let me meet Grace, they let my find my mother. Yet I can't help but wonder if they did that because it would cause me more pain in the long run. If that was the plan then they haven't done a very good job, I've had pain before and I've never wanted to know anything about who I was. Their version of pain and my version of pain were clearly different.

Not that I was a stranger to pain, I still have that vampire bit on my shoulder, though it is little more than a scratch now. Instinctively I rubbed it and I flashed back.

_Grace stood up. "There all done." I looked up at her. _

_"So I can put my shirt on right?" I asked. _

_"Why wouldn't you be able too?" She wondered. _

_"Well this is my favorite shirt and if the medicine burns a hole in it or something I'll be pretty mad." I told her. _

_"I don't think we're in any danger of that happening." She laughed. _

I really did miss laughing with her like that though. She could bring out the best in me, but she could also bring out the worst. Like the time we had gotten so angry at each other that we burned one of the tents down on accident. Though Thalia swears it's not possible to burn something on accident. Well it is if you're me and guess who I am. That's right, I am me.

We were three quarters of the way across the Delaware now, and the men were lining up on the other side. I took a deep breath and started to prepare myself for what was to come. Most likely we would be engaged in battle. There was no doubt that people would die, but it was my goal not to kill anyone. I valued human life, and didn't want to kill without reason; my other goal was to maintain control on the Wild, Conscious and Instinct. I couldn't afford to let one of them slip into control; if I did they would do anything even if it went against my moral code.

We docked on the other side, I asked if we should tie the boats and Mr. Samson shook his head and pulled the boat on shore. I guess that wasn't too hard, how much could the boat weigh anyway? Liam was on his knees, the poor guy was pale and a light shade of green, he was sick twice more on the boat which if I counted right made a total of eleven times. He didn't look like he was ready to face and army of well-trained soldiers from England.

The General started giving orders to the men, but I wasn't listening. I was busy forming my own plan, while the men went straight for the attack I was going to go for the back, because if I could injure the back line of me then I could be just as effective.

We started going towards the town and I separated from the men, they didn't seem to notice, they were too focused on the task ahead. Good the plan had worked perfectly so far. The streets were dark, and I saw no one except a few cats. I passed a back ally, and heard something. I drew my bow, and crept down the alley, I saw four men and a girl, maybe Grace's age. The girl was clearly distressed and the men weren't doing anything to help the situation.

Then one man made a mistake, he touched her, in a way the girl clearly didn't like, she was begging to be left alone and I had only one thought, to kill them all. I had snapped. Then I was floating in the white space.

_Conscious was seated next to me; she looked at me and smiled broadly. "Hello." _

_ "Um, what happened?" I asked. _

_ "Well you saw four men, um… bothering a girl. You snapped out of control, or rather Instinct and Wild got too angry and forced you out of control." Conscious explained. "They took over and I'm guessing they're not going to stop for anything. Even your body's limits." _

_ "This is bad..." I said. _

Sal

She leaned against Maddy's chair, she and Bob were about to activate the two week return portal when the computer screen flashed.

"Hello." A boy with dark hair and pale skin said.

"Uh… Hi?" Sal replied, at a loss for words. They never, _never_ got calls from anyone. They had just assumed that they were alone here. This though, this proved her wrong. How had this boy gotten a hold of them? How did he even know where they were? Who was he? She had a million questions.

"Tell me this, you are time travelers." It wasn't a question. How did he know this? Was he a stalker? A member of the agency? Another time traveler? "So did anyone come through, anyone new?" She was much too stunned to be afraid that their mission could be jeprodiezed. All she thought was that they weren't alone someone had found them.

"Um, yeah, Orion." Sal said. She realized that even though she had a million other questions that she couldn't bring herself to ask them, she just answered his questions. She would have to tell Maddy about this later when, and if, they got back in the next window.

"Good, good. Listen carefully, we are from where he belongs, and I want you to send him here when he gets back. Alright?" the printed whirred to life and a paper popped out. She glanced at it, coordinates to a time, and a place.

"O-okay, I-I'm Sal who are you?" Sal asked. This was the question she had wanted to ask the most.

He smile at her, but on him it seemed much more… demonic"My name is Nico Di Angelo and I am your worst nightmare."

"Oh." She squeaked. The screen blacked out and she was left to stare after him and wonder what that was supposed to have meant.

Lilly

Her body hurt when she woke up, probably form sleeping on the couch, she stood up and realized she had fallen off the couch on the floor. She groaned and looked out the window, it was pouring, which meant Apollo was home. Perfect, she needed to have words with him.

She climbed the stairs silently there were pictures of Shamrock lining the way up the staircase fifteen in all, one from each year of his life all taken in the same place, the front lawn, lying in the grass. She could see how much he had changed, from and infant to a toddler, to a child then to the Shamrock they knew today. Once she reached the top Lilly could here Apollo snoring. She opened his door and stifled a scream. Apollo sat up and snapped his fingers, to prevent others from hearing them.

"Lilly?" He asked. "When did you get here?"

"Last night you idiot! You brought me here! What are you doing? Shamrock fell off a cliff and all you ever care about is this!" She gestured to the other sleeping female form in the bed. "Now I know why Lady Artemis is so disgusted by you." She slammed the door and stormed down the stairs. She grabbed and apple off the counter and walked out of the house, not even caring that it was pouring rain. Tears welled in her eyes but she wasn't really sure why, it could have been because her brother was gone and Apollo didn't care.

She threw the apple at a tree and held out her arm, a sliver bow appeared she choked back a sob because other than the name it was identical to Shamrock's bow. She fired arrow after arrow into the trunk of a tree until she couldn't take it and collapsed sobbing to the ground.

"Lilly?" Nico's voice called from the shadows. He stepped out into the rain and she looked up.

"H-hi." She muttered pitifully, he crossed the clearing, sat next to her and put an awkward arm around her. She soon found herself sobbing on his shoulder. She looked up and met his dark eyes; they were warm and oddly comforting.

"Lilly, he's coming home." He muttered.

"What?" She looked up into his dark eyes.

"Yeah, we got in contact with the people who found him, he's coming home." He hugged her tightly and she couldn't stop herself from kissing him full on the mouth. Nico was clearly surprised as when she sat back his eyes were the size of dinner plates and his pupils dilated.

"Thank you Nico. Thank you." She whispered. She sat there, smiling to herself and Apollo came out.

"Lilly, Nico?" Apollo raised his eyebrows and Nico's face went completely blank. "Come on in and get changed." Lilly nodded mutely and stood up, Nico followed closely behind her. Apollo gestured for Nico to take the downstairs shower and instructed Lilly to go the upstairs one.

Apollo's female friend was gone, which relieved Lilly somewhat that would have been really embarrassing. Lilly was also glad that Apollo seemed to have gotten everything cleaned up. She stepped into the warm shower and let the water run all down her body. She stood there for about three minutes before washing and getting out. She put on the same clothes she had on the night before and went down stairs.

Fifteen minutes later they had reassembled in the kitchen where Apollo was making breakfast. Eggs, sunny side up, and bacon. Lilly sat at the table and waited for Nico, when he arrived Apollo started talking.

"So you know what happened to your brother, you know where he is, but we don't know when he'll get back. We don't even know if he'll get back, Nico we can't guarantee that all will be good." Apollo said, Nico nodded. "We don't know that they will want to send him back. We don't even know if he knows who he is."

"Even _Shamrock_ can't forget who he is." Lilly commented.

"Unless the person who sent him back in time wiped his memory, well technically they couldn't wipe it they would repress it. Then it would be up to his Conscious to give it back, which wouldn't be easy it would have to come slowly and steadily, maybe a little bit every day but not all at once." Apollo explained.

"Why not?" Lilly asked.

"Because if you did give him all his memories back at once his core would be attacked, and one memory, say the time he found his mom, could cause part of him to disappear." Apollo tried to explain.

"Like an arm?" Lilly asked.

"No, metaphysically part of who he was, the basic building blocks of his instincts would disappear, Lilly you and Shamrock have different instincts then the rest of us, say Nico or I were to hear a child crying in the forest, we have the ability to ignore it if we want to. You and Sham being related to Artemis, the goddess of Child birth and protector of children, would have to go and help, your instincts wouldn't let you ignore it. Like if Shamrock were to kiss a girl, it would go against his core; it would make him feel so utterly lost that he wouldn't know what to do about it. So he'd act like it never happened, but it would nag at the back of his mind, and slowly eat away at his core." Apollo explained.

Lilly grimaced. "That's kind of disturbing. Would this work, uh, vice versa?"

"Yes why?" Apollo asked. Lilly didn't speak up and Nico's pale skin turned a light shad of pink. "Nico Marcus Di Angelo, do you care to tell me what's going on here?" Nico shook his head. Apollo took a deep breath and turned slowly to Lilly. "Lilly Calisto Clover." Apollo said slowly. "What are you not telling me?"

Lilly mumbled something so low even the sun god couldn't hear it.

"What?" Apollo asked.

"I sort of maybe, possibly kissed Nico?" Lilly winced.

Apollo's eye twitched. "You did what?"

"I-"Lilly started but was cut off.

"I heard you!" Apollo shouted. "I heard you loud and clear that time Lilly. That's the problem you are a bit more level headed then your brother but clearly not enough to think this over! Your mother is the virgin goddess."

"So? I can kiss Nico if I want to!" Lilly snapped, Nico winced like he was afraid she would kill him if he said anything.

"Lilly here is where I foresee a problem! You are the level headed one, yes but when you snap you become reckless and overall just like your brother! We can't handle losing two okay!" Apollo shouted, she could see he was really mad.

"You don't control us!" Lilly shouted, and Apollo froze.

"Us?" He and Nico said at the same time.

"I have this little voice that wants to be called Annie!" Lilly snapped.

"Oh your Instincts, Conscious, and Wild." Apollo said.

"Yeah, that." Lilly said, Apollo set something in front of her. "What's that?"

"Breakfast. You distracted me so I burned it." He said. "Eat up, we have a busy day.

The Underworld

"So the boy has his memories back I see." The cloaked figure said. "Now let us see what shall happen when they get home. Let us see what Grace shall do."

"M-my lord." A red headed figure on bowing on the ground said. "Perhaps we should just let them alone."

"Silence fool! I have planned this for far too long to change my mind now!" He snapped.

"But my lord, we have already caused Grace so much pain." The bowing man said.

"Silence! You only care about her because she is your precious sister!" The man snapped. "I set that factory ablaze, you should feel lucky I chose you Sean O'Donally!"

"Yes sir." The boy stood up, his green eyes the same color as Grace's. "I am certain my sister will see reason." In reality Sean knows this isn't true his sister cares too much for Shamrock, but if he tells the man that he will never get to tell her he never regretted her living and him dying and to tell her to have a happy life.

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**Oh my, I do wonder what is going to happen about that. Well actually I know, you just wonder :P Anyway I'll try to update next week but I'm not a hundred percent sure I will be able to, because my family will be at the beach, and I'll be red as a lobster, actually I'm red as a lobster now and just sitting against the back of my chair, and wearing a loose t-shirt hurts like Hades. I hate the sun. Anyway I'll see you (Not literally that be weird) next time!**

**- **To Thine Own Self Be True101**  
**


	5. What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger

**Yeah, yeah this is early, I know. I am currently in Busan with my family, we don't have wireless and I am plugged into an internet cable that I didn't know still existed. My sisters birthday is tomarrow, and we are driving home so I can't update then, but here you go. **

**This chapter is for my sister Bella, and only Bella.  
**

**I don't own PJO or TimeRiders.  
**

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Five

What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger (And Really Hurts)

_Who says you can't go home, who says you can't go back?_

- _Bon Jovi_

_Key – The Wild_

**_The Conscious_**

**_The Instinct_**

_Shamrock_

Shamrock

_Ow. What did I do?_

_We may have, er… pushed your limits a bit._

_A bit? My muscles feel like I set them on fire and poured acid over the burns_

_Okay so we may have gone a bit past your body's limitations. _

_How far?_

_Um, about two maybe three hundred percent?_

_Three Hundred percent?_

**_Actually it was more like four hundred._**

_If you weren't all just little metaphysical beings, and my body wasn't on fire I would be strangling you right now. _

**_We know, we know_**

I tried to sit up, but I couldn't, instead I lay there for a few minutes until I heard something, then I sat up. Really, really slowly and really, really painfully.

"Are you okay?" A timid voice asked. It was the girl.

"What? Oh yeah, I'll be fine." I grimaced. "Just a few broken ribs, and pulled muscles."

"Um, I don't think so, look at your leg." She said, I looked and I grimaced, there was a large gash in the side of it, red, inflamed and really deep.

"That's going to hurt in the morning." I said. I started to stand up and pain shot through my body. "Or now, it's going to hurt now." She looked at me like I was crazy, which I probably was, and came over to me and helped me up. I looked around; there were bodies, of the men I'd killed. I'd killed. Before I had another thought I passed out.

I woke up in a bed. A very warm comfortable, short bed. I would have been comfortable if I didn't have the memories of killing them and my body wasn't on fire, oh yeah and I wasn't in a dress. The girl came in and I sat up.

"Ouch." I hissed in pain, she pulled the blankets back and started to dab the wound with a damp cloth. The blood on the cloth scared me a little bit, because I didn't know if I could even lose that much blood without getting sick. I was already Anemic, and I didn't need this.

"Don't worry you'll be fine, I would just stay off it as much as you can." She instructed, I nodded. The door opened, Maddy, and Becks walked in.

"Hey, Shamrock." Maddy said, I waved and my stomach rolled as the girl started to wrap my leg. "Are you okay?"

"Dandy cakes, and lollipops. I've only killed four men, had my body pushed four hundred percent past the limit of what I can physically take, and lost my dignity." I winced.

"How did you lose your dignity?" Maddy frowned.

"I'm in a dress." I grimaced.

"You're in a nightgown." Becks frowned and gestured to herself. "This is a dress, that is a nightgown boys of the time period-"

"We get it Becks." Liam strolled into the room. "Well Shamrock you missed the entire battle, its noon, you've been out for six nine hours, and we need to go." I nodded and slowly climbed out of the bed, my knees nearly gave out but I steadied myself.

"Could I have my clothes please?" I asked. Maddy nodded and handed me a pair of pants and a shirt. They left and I started the slow painful process of getting dressed. This was worse than the Vampire bite.

I slid the pants on slowly so as not to touch the wound, which, though it was wrapped, pain coursed through it every time I touched it. Getting the shirt on was much easier, it went right over my head but then I had to tuck it into the pants, which were already tight and my hips were bruised. I didn't even want to know why they were bruised. Grace would kill me when she saw what I had done to myself.

Well if she didn't kill me for falling off a cliff first. How long had I been gone? it was about a week in Time Riding time I think. How long was that for Grace?

I practically crawled over to the door way, my legs kept giving way under me and I would crawl a few paces, and walk a few steps. I stood and opened the door, stairs. I sighed, and gripped the railing, I took the first step down, then another and my leg burned. I never thought I would come as low as to scooting down the stairs. Once again I was proved wrong.

Liam nearly stepped on my as I scooted down the final stair, he jumped back and looked at me. "Shamrock? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I couldn't put all my weight on one leg so I had to scoot down the stairs." It sounded even more humiliating when I said it. He didn't laugh, well he smirked but he didn't laugh. I tried to stand up and couldn't. "Feel like helping?" Liam held out his hand and pulled me up.

I don't want to sound weak or anything, but that was the first time I realized how hard this would be for me. I had moved maybe 100 feet and the meeting place was half a mile away. I would have to do it though, I didn't have a choice. I kept telling myself I was doing this for Grace, even with that though Maddy and Liam had to help support me to get out the door.

We said goodbye to the girl and slowly started to limp back to the Meeting Place. It was a very slow painful half mile. Becks did offer to carry me but I didn't need to lose what was left of my dignity.

If I could have choked Conscious, Wild and Instinct I would have, but since they were metaphysical parts of me, I couldn't exactly do that. I could always do it in my mind though.

We were finally sitting in the back all right where we needed to be, this time we went back dry, with no water involved. The white space seemed to go back much faster this time and soon we were sitting on the floor of the dank and dreary Headquarters.

Sal ran over and nearly crushed Liam and Maddy. "You're alive!" She cried, Liam nodded.

"Sal we missed you too now could you please let us breathe." Maddy reasoned, Sal blushed and let us go.

"We got a call." Sal muttered.

"From who?" Maddy asked clearly no one called them that often because the look in her eyes was one of curiosity and fright.

"Someone named Nico Di Angelo, who's my worst nightmare." Sal frowned, I laughed. "Do you know him?"

"Yeah I know him, he's part of my world. I'm a demi-god you see." I started.

"Wait, Orion, like those things in Greek myths that my mom used to tell me?" Sal asked,I nodded and began to explain. She seemed to take this all calmly, I guess once your introduced to time travel things like Greek gods existing in modern day America wasn't so strange.

"Yeah, but anyway my name is Shamrock Orion Clover, son of Artemis and I would like to go home now please." I said.

"Yeah Nico sent the coordinates, and time. Just get your stuff together and we'll get you in the fish bowl. Liam go with him." Sal said then seemed to notice the cut on my leg for the first time her eyes widened. "What happened to you?"

"It's complicated," I said the images of the men I'd killed flashing through my mind. "I'm going to change and clean out my cut." Without waiting for an answer I walked back to the bed room. I didn't have much, just my drawings and old tunic, which I changed into as quickly as I could with my wounds. I turned to the drab grey room and waved. "Can I recommend some throw rugs?" I walked into the back room where Bob, Becks, Maddy, Sal and Liam were waiting.

"Throw rugs?" Bob, Becks and Liam chorused.

"Yeah, this place could use a bit brightening here and there, like maybe a huge, brightly colored painting." I said.

"Shamrock the interior decorator." Maddy rolled her eyes.

"I never really thought about it but it might be a good profession." I frowned, Maddy rolled her eyes.

"We just have to wait for the system to charge up, and then we can send you home. In the meantime start filling the fish tank, since it's your time we'll send you back clothed." She explained.

"Thank you; I don't really want everyone to see my boxers." I said.

"It's not our fault they're bright green with Shamrock's on them." Sal rolled her eyes.

"Hey those were a gift." I snapped.

"From who, the leprechauns?" Sal snickered.

"No, Apollo." I said.

"This isn't really helping your case any." Maddy said. I rolled my eyes and ignored them. My thoughts strayed to when I got back.

I would definatly be seeing Grace as soon as I possibly could, I missed her a lot. Then I would have to sort things out with her, but my mom still had something to tell me, if she didn't kill me with a long lecture about falling off cliffs first. I turned to Maddy.

"Hey Maddy?" I asked.

"Yeah Shamrock?" She looked up.

"What do I do if I _hypothetically_ thought I liked this girl, then I _hypothetically_ fell off a cliff and was _hypothetically_ made to fight in the revolution while she thinks I'm dead, what do I say when she finds out?" I wondered, she looked at me and raised an eyebrow.

"Hypothetically?" She asked. The other two giggled in the background. "You two be nice and don't act like a bunch of middle school girls, it's not flattering." The other two stopped and Maddy looked back at me. "Well Shamrock you should _hypothetically_ tell the girl how you feel, and kiss her."

"What if I _hypothetically_ didn't know if I like the girl because my _hypothetical_ mother was the goddess of virginity and sworn off love for ever and I have _hypothetically_ never liked a girl?" I asked. More giggles in the background.

"Well then I would talk to the girl and you two make a decision based off of that." She said.

"What if the girl is_ hypothetically_, my mother's virgin huntress who is forever sworn off love?" I asked.

"Then the _hypothetical _you is _hypothetically_ screwed." Maddy patted my shoulder and went back to work as the other two exploded into laughter.

"Hey it was hypothetical!" I yelled.

"Yeah sure it was and I was _hypothetically_ on the Titanic, and _hypothetically_ time travel!" Liam laughed. I rolled my eyes and sat down next to Maddy.

"Just ignore them, they need a laugh sometimes." She said.

"Are they always like this?" I asked.

"No, only when tension is high or when there is a serious problem at hand." She said. Liam finally calmed down came over.

"Are you almost ready to go home?" He asked. I stood up.

"Let's go meet Grace."

Lilly

It was the day of the funeral; also the same day Shamrock was supposed to arrive home, Lilly honestly hoped Nico had been right about this time travel agency. She _thought_ she could trust him and she certainly hoped she could, but they hadn't spoken since the morning at Apollo's about a week ago.

At the moment Lilly was sitting on the couch, in a black velvet dress, black tights and ballet flats. Not her idea of comfortable, but Poseidon and Apollo had insisted that Lilly look her best even if Shamrock wasn't dead, she_ had_ to look like she _thought_ he was, and it would be mean to the others not to show up like that when they all thought that he was dead. She had put on a little mascara, or rather had been tied down while Apollo put on the mascara, which was frightening enough, considering Apollo knew how to do make up and she didn't.

Lady Artemis was on the couch next to her, a vacant expression on her face, when the doorbell rang. Lady Artemis frowned and Lilly stood to answer the door. He was the tallest person she had ever seen, six foot six at least. He looked like her uncle but something about him was different, he was dressed in a Greek style hunting tunic, and had a belt with a dagger around his waist. Lilly leaned around him and saw Nico who waved.

"Um hi Nico who's this?" She asked. Nico groaned.

"Orion, I would think you know him." Nico said. Lady Artemis came up behind Lilly and gaped at him.

"Orion?" Lady Artemis breathed.

"Hello milady." He bowed. "I heard about the child and I- oh um, calm down?" Lady Artemis had suddenly burst into uncontrollable sobs. Orion awkwardly put and arm around her.

"Sis?" Apollo said. "Oh hi Orion. What did you do this time?"

"I don't know I just told her I had come for Shamrock's the funeral and then this." Orion looked a bit confused when he mentioned Shamrock. As though he wasn't sure that was his name, it was to be expected, he didn't know him very well and apart from meeting in Shamrock's dreams they had never met.

"Oh don't worry about it; it's been on and off crying for weeks, we were just about to leave. Why don't we all hop in the sun chariot and be off?" Apollo said.

Apollo drove, and everyone else sat behind him in the sun chariot which was in minivan mode. Lady Artemis was still crying and poor Orion was doing his best to calm her down, Nico and Lilly decided it was best just to sit in the very back. Lilly sighed.

"What's wrong?" Nico whispered.

"Can't we tell them, she's so upset?" Lilly pleaded.

"No, we can't because I can't be sure about when he'll arrive, I think he will though. Since I told the Sal girl that I was her worst night mare, I don't think she believed me though." Nico frowned.

"That's mean Nico, how could you tell her that?" Lilly said.

"Like this 'my name is Nico Di Angelo, and I am your worst night mare.'" He said.

"You are so-o cliché." She shook her head. As they descended down towards Camp Half-Blood Lilly became painfully aware of how much the hunters were hurting. They lost Shamrock and then Lady Artemis left them for a month, and Grace. She didn't even want to get started on how Grace was.

Surprisingly Grace was just fine and had managed to hold it together quite well. She was standing at the door patently waiting, wearing a black hunting tunic, two small braids pulled back into a silver clip shaped like a bow and arrow making a crown out of her hair. She gave Lilly a weak, empty hearted smile. Grace, the girl who seemed unbreakable in Volterra, broke. The girl Sham said was strong on the Island had crumbled. The girl who Sham said smiled to try and hide the pain, cried. The girl who had been trying for over a hundred years _gave up, _her weak smile silently saying 'I can't do this anymore…' Instead though she said;

"Come on in Lilly we still have a half an hour." Lilly fallowed Grace into cabin eight. It was a mournful scene, the curtains were drawn and very little light was let in, save a small stream of light falling on to Shamrock's pillow.

Once they moved to the arena people began taking their seats, and Lady Artemis was still crying, Orion tried to comfort her and so did Hestia. Finally she calmed down enough to mount the stage, followed closely by the hunters. The hunters gripped the shroud in their hands. 5…4…3…2...1…

Apollo

He wanted to tell his sister, he wanted to yell out that they had to stop, that there had been a mistake, that he was fine. Even that he didn't know, he checked his watch, five minutes. The arena began to fill and he saw Orion hugging Artemis and letting her cry. She hadn't spoken to Apollo in days, she had her reasons, he ought to have seen this coming. He wasn't the fates, and if they were weaving Shamrock's life then he knew it had to be planned that his life wouldn't end here.

Still if it what if the fates had Shamrock's life cloth done? What if someone had meddled around with them? It would mean a bad ending for the meddler and most likely Shamrock. Still if no one had known about him then maybe the fates weren't weaving his life. Could that happen? Yes it could, he knew it could but no one else did. All a person had to do was sneak into the weaving room of the fates, where they're looms were constantly moving and they over saw them.

Each god had their own loom and on it the cloths of their children. The looms grew to accompany how many children each god had, and then there was the mortal loom taking up the most space. Artemis' loom as far as he knew was the smallest, he had seen it only once, it was small, no bigger than his lyre, and dusty. They would surely notice if the loom started moving, right? Unless someone had stolen the loom and changed the design. It was all too possible, the fates never checked on her loom, they never needed to, hers and Hestia's never once moved.

He looked at his sister, two minutes to go. Hestia was now talking to her, telling her everything would be fine, she could do it. Artemis nodded and moved up the stage, the Hunters climbed the stage, each one looking shaken. It ripped him to bits seeing his sister and her family like this, they didn't deserve it. They had all been through so much pain already, each of the hunters had a painful story to tell and they had all told it.

He tried to get into Grace's head, but found he couldn't. She had put up a mind block. Shamrock had probably taught her that, good boy. He really didn't like it when Apollo intruded, so in his mind Shamrock would sing. He had a lovely soprano voice for a guy, he had hit puberty a bit late and only recently had he started to grow and mature. He was still only 5'1" which was sad considering his father was pretty tall.

The hunters bent down to grip on to the shroud. Normally it would take all of them to lift him but since the shroud was empty it really only took one, but sticking to the tradition they all held on to it. 5…4…3…2…1…

Nico

Nico didn't go to cabin eight, instead he retreated almost immediately to cabin thirteen. The scene here was always depressing, an eerie green fire burned in the eyes of the skulls hanging on the outside, the cabin was made entirely of bones, off the overhang of the roof were more skulls these ones of various animals.

The inside was dark; the windows tinted so very little light could get in the one bed in the corner had black sheets, a black comforter and a black pillow. Along the left hand wall was an array of weaponry from the underworld, Nico only knew how to use half of it but that didn't matter.

This décor meant no visitors ever came and that was just fine with him. He'd never really liked people anyway they had always seemed annoying, loud, and inconsiderate, judge mental, and mean. Which was true for most of society, they were never accepting to the different, the out siders, the underdogs all of them were excluded. Even in Camp the human population was judge mental and unaccepting him, there were lots of reasons he stayed away as much as he could.

He was starting to feel funny, every time he looked at Lilly his stomach flipped over and his heart jumped a bit. It was weird, but Bianca had warned him of this, that one day he would like girls, he had never believed her until recently, sure he had that childish crush on Thalia but she was a hunter, though he supposed Lilly was worse, she was of the hunt. There was a knock on his door and he went to answer it.

"It's time." Lilly said. He nodded and fallowed her to the Arena where the funeral was set up. Three hundred chairs all set up in rows, most of the campers didn't care, and knew what to do all too well, and they weren't shaken at all. It was the war, they had seen too many mass deaths to care for one guy, what upset them was the fact that there was no body, they had seen maimed, shredded, bare bones, and a many no bodied shrouds, but this was worse because Shamrock's body would have just floated in the ocean, but they couldn't find out where it was, there wasn't even and article of clothing or an sign that anyone had been there. It was weird. Only Nico, Apollo, Athena, and Lilly knew why and they weren't going to share this crucial piece of information.

He took a seat next to Lilly who had tears in her eyes; even though she knew that he wasn't dead she couldn't stop the tears from coming. It hurt her, to see all them. When she looked up at Nico her eye's asked 'why can't we tell them?' and he answered 'they'll know soon enough', she gave a small nod, Lady Artemis mounted the stage and the hunters lifted the shroud. 5…4…3…2…1…

Athena

Did it hurt to watch Artemis? Yes it was incredibly agonizing for Athena to watch the girl whom she had raised cry like that. She recollected on Artemis growing up, her long tangled auburn hair, her tunics she could never keep clean, her big silver eyes that asked a million questions. She remembered how Artemis had talked about being a mother, she had always desired a baby of her own, then she found out where babies _really_ came from and that flew out the window and she became fairly content remaining virgin. Still though she longed for a child.

Athena recalled the day Shamrock and Lilly were born. Aphrodite had declared that they were Artemis' but Athena couldn't shake the feeling that it hadn't been Aphrodite at all, which was a first usual if anything was ever aimed to annoy or hurt Artemis, either Aphrodite or Apollo was behind it. Yet, she couldn't help but think that there was something, or someone else involved, another piece on the game board that was his life. An invisible piece that drove the other pieces insane.

She remembered telling Apollo to kill them. She had known he wouldn't do that, he was too kind, too much like his sister. Though the last thing she had predicted was for Poseidon to get involved in raising the little girl. She had highly doubted he would be a good father; he was gone all the time and didn't seem to care. Lilly had said that he was gone a lot but when he was there he was great, but those day's became fewer and fewer as she grew, then her birthday and Christmas eve was it. She made friends with Jake as a young girl, so she had somewhere to go but she was clearly sad that he was never around.

Artemis climbed on to the stage and the girls came up and gripped the shroud in their hands. 5…4…3…2…1…

The Underworld

The figure gazed into his glass ball, he could see the funeral. He glanced over at the small silver loom in the corner, two clothes, exactly the same length were on the loom. They had different pictures, the loom was always working and yet the clothes grew incredibly slowly, only about half an inch a year. This time the eyes of the figure were drawn to the bottom of the loom, he smiled, perfect. Just what he needed.

Sean O'Donally came racing into the room, it had taken the boy long enough to get here. He had been called for well over three minutes ago.

"Sean!" The figure barked.

"Yes sir" The boy said, the Irish in his voice still very noticeable after a hundred and fifteen years of being dead.

"Go and fetch my staff." The figure said, Sean nodded and ran out. The figure looked at the loom again, the cloth that belonged to Grace was beginning to interweave into Shamrock's. Good, good that meant everything was going as planned. That would make up for the problems with the Di Angelo boy.

He turned his attention to the glass ball, where Artemis now stood on stage, and the hunters were gripping on to the shroud. Good. 5…4…3…2…1…

Orion

It ached, to see her like this. She ought to be so happy; nothing should have enough nerve to make her this upset! He wanted to make her feel better, he wanted to hold her close to him and tell her everything would be okay, that he was fine, that her children were fine and that it was all okay. Of course next to nothing was okay, she had lost one of her two children, and she could never have another.

He wanted to ask Apollo about their father, who was he? Why wasn't he here? Why wasn't he raising the kids? Was he a jerk? Would he hurt Artemis? Would he hurt the kids? If he was alive and knew about them but wouldn't raise them he would be at the top of Orion's 'To Get' list. Who wouldn't want to raise two beautiful children like them?

Orion had always wanted kids, he had always wanted to hold his little girl, to watch her play and be happy. He had always seen her as having curly hair, like he had when he was a kid, auburn like Artemis' and silver eyes. Except he had wanted that child to be hers too and that wasn't ever going to happen. That was okay, as long as she was happy which at the moment she clearly wasn't too happy. There were tear tracks down her face and his shoulder was wet from where she had been crying. It was the most upset she had been in centuries and the most upset Orion had ever witnessed her as being.

Artemis finally calmed down enough to go onto the stage, and to give her speech, the hunters following closely behind her. They held onto the silver shroud, but before they could do anything there was a flash of silver.

Grace

People filed in to the arena, there was a fire burning on the stage, and a shroud sitting next to it. The shroud, like so many before it was empty, just a cloth tied at both ends, no body, nothing even of his that they would burn with it, it was just alone. She could hardly look at it, the pain was that great. Why? Why him?

Grace felt tears well up in her eyes, her best friend, dead. No, she promised herself she wouldn't do this. It would only hurt her more if she did. Then again, her life had been nothing but pain and agony, watching her old world dissolve, she had thought the hunt would be her chance, but it wasn't, the hunt only made her feel the pain longer. If she had just lived like she was supposed to she'd be dead by now.

Oddly instead of wishing for Shamrock to run in and be okay, she wanted her brother by her side. She didn't want to face this alone, but she would have to. Sean, his red hair a mess, and teasing her that her hair matched her temper, wild, deadly and red. They really did look exactly alike, it was uncanny all Sean had to do was grow his hair and then he would have looked just like her. She stopped, no thinking like that either it would only cause pain, and pain meant tears.

Lady Artemis strode on to stage, a familiar figure behind her. At Six and a half feet tall, Orion stood out the most in the crowd; she didn't even have to guess to know who he was. No one else looked that much like Poseidon and she knew it wasn't Poseidon because he was seated in the row a head of her.

The hunters were each called up to help burn the shroud but just as it was time to put it in the fire, there was a brilliant flash of light, that blinded everyone for a minute. She knew only one person who would make that entry at a funeral, Shamrock.

He was dripping wet, and had that stupid grin on his face; Grace was frozen to the spot. Then Shamrock did the most Shamrock thing possible, he held up his hands and said; "So what did I miss?"

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**Okay, what did you think? Be honest and tell me by hitting the bright and shiny blue button there on the bottom and I'll see you next week in our final chapter. :)**

**-  
**To Thine Own Self Be True101


	6. Somebody Told Me

**Well I have to update early because the movers are coming on Monday to pack all our stuff up, Sunday is a cleaning day, Saturday (Now here in Korea) is cleaning, and I am updating over lunch. **

**To Iris for support  
**

**To Gabriella for making me read TimeRiders and giving me this idea  
**

**To Belle and Bella for reminding me it's okay to take a break  
**

**To Arabella for support around the world  
**

**To Sapphier for being so interested in this story that she would listen to my constant rambling  
**

**I don't own PJO or TimeRiders  
**

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Six

Somebody Told Me I'd Be Fine

_I learned to read it like a sign, she was beside me and I was fine_

_~Somebody Told Me_

Shamrock

I held up my hands and said; "So what did I miss?" and to be honest I don't know who was more stunned, my mom, or Grace. Both of which stared for a few seconds, my mother rushed at me and knocked me to the ground.

"Shamrock." She breathed.

"Mom." I muttered it felt unexplainably good to be back in my mother's arms; I pried her off of me and stood up. "Mom I broke my ribs, and I'm pretty scraped up."

"What did you do?" She asked.

"Nothing!" I snapped she looked hurt. "Nothing, sorry it's been a long day."

"Sham." Grace's voice said softly, her eyes were tinged red, as though she'd been crying recently. "You've been gone a month and a half."

"A month? It's February?" I asked.

"Yeah." Grace whispered, she looked hurt; I walked over to her, put my hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eye, they were full of pain, and sadness. Which is how Grace spent the last few decades feeling, I could sense her exhaustion, the mere emotional stress was enough to do this to her, I was surprised she hadn't left and struck out on her own. I hugged her tightly and looked at her.

"Grace, are you okay?" I whispered. I could feel everyone's eyes watching us. I saw Grace's wall finally come down and with it a flood of emotion. Then the girl who always seemed so strong broke down in my arms, sobbing, I held her to me, smelling her sweet scent of Lilacs (Which turned out to be her shampoo) and trying to get her to calm down. She had been too strong too long and finally after over a hundred years she couldn't do it anymore.

We limped back to cabin eight, well I limped and they walked. We all had a few scrapes and bruises, mostly over our hearts, but my ribs were still broken, and Grace made me lie down and sip some nectar. I was grateful that she had stopped crying but she wouldn't say anything, she just looked at me like she was afraid I'd disappear on her again.

Everyone was happy to see me and after Lilly, Grace, and Mom backed off a bit I saw that there was just one person I didn't know he stood in the back and looked uncomfortable and out of place.

"Percy?" I asked, because he looked like Percy, much older, and taller, with a belt holding a hunting dagger around his waist.

He chuckled. "No, I'm Orion." I raised an eyebrow. "You look like your mother when you do that."

"I know." I said.

"You also look like your sister." He said. I frowned, turned to my mom and raised both my eyebrows quizzically.

"What the Hades did you do while I was gone?" I asked. "I could've sworn Grace said a _month_ and a half not a _year_ and a half!"

Orion and Mom laughed. "He's talking about Lilly." I breathed a sigh of relief and quickly recovered.

"Oh, huh. Well congrats Lil, welcome to the family." I grinned and shook her hand.

"Gee, thanks. I get a danger prone brother on our birthday." She rolled her eyes humoring me by shaking my hand back.

I frowned and looked over at Apollo. "Our birthday? It's February 13 already?" I asked.

"Yeah it is." Apollo said, Liam was standing awkwardly in the back and waved.

"Happy birthday." He said.

Grace turned around. "Who's this?"

"Oh yeah Grace that's Liam, Liam this is Grace, I think you'll get along." I said. Grace turned to me and raised a quizzical eyebrow.

"Why?" She asked.

"Here," I stood up and felt much better. "Why don't we all go outside?" Liam fallowed me and Grace walked a bit to the side. "Grace Liam is from Cork."

"Cork? Ireland?" She asked instantly recognizing the place. I nodded. "How does that help us get along?"

"Let me finish, gods. Liam is from Cork Ireland in 1912." I explained, Grace looked from me to Liam. The look on her face was priceless, it was a combination of joy, and being stunned. "You two were even born in the same year.

"Really?" She asked.

"I should think so, 1896 proudly." Liam spoke up. "You're from Galway." Grace nodded.

"How did you know that?" I asked.

"Well you told me." He said.

"Oh. Yeah I guess I did." I muttered but they weren't listening they were off talking rapidly to each other, apparently there was something between their families in the Irish revolution of 1798. Within the hour though, Liam had to leave. I waved to him as the portal opened. "Tell Sal and Maddy hi!"

"I will. I'll also tell them that you and this_ hypothetical_ girl are okay!" Then the portal consumed him. I turned to Grace who was looking at me with eyes of glass. Like if I said the wrong thing she would break again.

"We needed to talk." I said. She nodded and fallowed me to the lake where I was in no danger of falling off cliffs. "So where do we go from here?"

"We go where the fates take us." She muttered half-heartedly, I made her look me in the eye.

"Grace, are you okay?" I asked slowly. Grace shook her head. "Why?"

"Shamrock, everyone I know and love has died and left me at some point. Can you see why it's so hard for me to believe that you're really here?" She whispered.

"Grace, I'm here to stay." I muttered.

"No you're not everyone says that." She said.

"Grace, have any of them come back?" I asked.

"No you're the first, and that's what really terrifies me. How long are you going to stick around? How long are you going to stay? Everyone always says 'I'll always be here.' None of them are. Even if you have come back how do I know that you won't leave me again in a few days? A few weeks? Months? Years? How long will it be?" Her voice wavered and I saw how truly delicate she was now. It hurt to think that I had made her this fragile, but she could do it. She could be strong again, I just didn't know when.

"Grace I'm not going anywhere. I don't have anywhere else to go to." I muttered, she still didn't say anything, just nodded mutely.

"Let's go home." She mumbled and walked back to cabin eight. I sighed and decided it was best to follow her. Mom must have noticed something was up because Grace walked right over to her bed and pulled her knees up to her chest. Mom whispered something to Orion and pointed to me Orion nodded and strode over to where I stood.

"Shamrock." Orion said. I looked up and he motioned for me to follow him outside. I did as instructed and trotted of behind him. "Is everything alright?"

"Yes, why wouldn't it be?" I said. I wasn't about to let this guy talk to me about anything, even if he was in love with my mom. Wait I _really _wasn't going to let him counsel me then, I didn't need his help, I didn't need anyone's help! I am a lone wolf, and they should know that, they all should!

"You are way too much like your mother." He shook his head.

"Hey!" I challenged.

"It's okay that's a good thing when it comes to anything but this." He said.

"Why did you want to talk to me?" I asked.

"Your succinct did anyone even tell you?" He asked I nodded. "Okay now, I'm going to try and do this like my mother did when we talked about your mom. How are things with Grace?"

"Things, are fine, we'll sort it out." I rolled my eyes, he stared at me, and he kept doing so until I said "Are you okay?"

"Yes I just know you aren't telling the truth so I'm going to keep doing this." He said.

"Okay then, no they aren't great." I said. He kept looking at me like that. "Okay then, she won't trust me, and she won't believe me when I say I'm not going to leave."

"Shamrock, Grace has had the rug pulled out from under her feet, and once she got stable again it was again removed then she spent a few years on a solid wooden floor and then you come along and break that." He said.

"Enough with the metaphors." I snapped.

"What I'm trying to say is, she spent very little of her life on stable ground, people came into her life and they left her life all too often, just when it looked like they were going to stay they left. She doesn't want that again, so she locks up her heart and throws away the key. You just have to find the key." He tried to explain, I rolled my eyes.

"Okay look, it's nice you can be all poetic, and I'm sure the girls love it, but get to the point!" I snapped.

"That was the- oh never mind! anyway what I'm saying is you have to show her that you are going to stick around, and maybe she'll grow to trust you." He said.

"See was that so hard? We can have a conversation without going all poetic and mushy." I said. He sighed that I-am-not-in-the-mood-to-deal-with-you-Shamrock way - people sigh like that a lot around me - and started to head back to cabin eight. "I'm going on a walk." He nodded.

I turned in the opposite direction and walked into the woods. I found a decent tree next to a creek and climbed it, just as I was about to have a little catnap I heard something. Of course, gods forbid I get any sleep ever around here.

"You who!" A voice called from the ground, I sighed and leapt down. Standing there in a bright pink dress, completely inappropriate for the forest, was Aphrodite.

"Oh hi." I said.

"Hi hon." She smiled. "I heard you're having some girly trouble." I sighed.

"Does every deity on Olympus know?" I grumbled, I was in a really bad mood and having to deal with her wasn't going to make it any better.

"Nope. Just me. So what's wrong?" She asked.

"I don't need your help." I said, I didn't, in fact I would be worse off if she tried to help me, but I didn't say that.

"Everyone says that but they really do." She insisted. "So?"

"Okay fine. Grace won't trust me and I can't take it anymore." I informed her.

"Well honey, you just have to show her you have what she wants." Aphrodite gushed.

"A good personality?" I asked.

"Oh heavens no! Good looks." Aphrodite rolled her eyes.

"Um, I don't think that's what love is all about and I don't think Grace really cares." I said.

"You are an idiot you know that?" She said like it was supposed to be some kind of great complement.

"Um…thanks?" I muttered but she wasn't listening.

"For heaven's sake, have you ever thought of working out?" She poked my arm.

"Hey! I'm a hunter, I am in the best shape I will ever be!" I snapped.

"Wow, no wonder you've never had a girlfriend." She grimaced. "You're so scrawny." she lifted up my shirt. "Well at least you've got_ some_ muscle."

"Stop that!" I smacked her hand away.

"You are _so_ your mothers child." She commented, and I got the feeling that was supposed to be an insult.

"Why did you bring me into this world?" I asked.

"What?" She looked at me, as though she had no idea what I was talking abou.

"You know through the Artemis Project?" She frowned. "You switched some things around and then here I am." She handed me a mirror and started to apply makeup to herself.

"Hm, nope I don't recall, besides I would never make anything so scrawny, honestly if you tried you could look great but I'm sorry it's just not happening. Like your mother, I tried to get her to wear a bra instead of binding-"

"Okay too far! I don't really want to talk about _that_ aspect of my mother." I insisted, she rolled her eyes.

"Okay then, that's your problem. Look hon, I need to go but good luck." She smiled and in a puff of pink smoke she was gone.

"Shamrock!" I heard Apollo call I stood up and walked over to him, I was never going to get my catnap today.

"What?" I grumbled.

"Oh there you are. So what's up little buddy." He grinned, calling me the nickname that had driven me next to insane when I was a kid.

I scowled. "I just talked to Aphrodite."

"Oh." He seemed to get what I was so upset about. Though I doubt he really cared.

"Apollo she just told me she wasn't involved in the Artemis Project." I said.

"What?" He asked. I opened my mouth to say it again. "No, I heard you but she really said that?"

"Yes." I insisted, I wasn't one to lie to the god of truth, I can do some pretty extreme, and dangerous things but that is just stupid, he hates being lied to and tends to incinerate whatever lies to him.

"Look, I need to talk to Athena, go find your mom and get a little sleep you look exhausted." He pointed towards the cabin, I sighed, accepted that was a direct order, besides I would get my nap, and walked back.

My mom and Orion were talking in the back, he hugged her tightly and she nodded. Slowly he faded and was gone.

"Hey mom." I said.

"Oh hello Shamrock. Are you okay?" Mom asked, rushing over and hugging me tightly, I was still pretty shaken and I probably looked it.

"Yeah I'm okay. I learned so pretty disturbing stuff from Aphrodite though." I said.

"Oh." She said, I could tell she understood me.

Later during dinner I stayed in the cabin and Grace came back early. I looked at her, she was reading a book on her bed, but didn't seem like she was really focused on the book.

"Hey Grace?" I asked.

"Yeah Sham?" She looked up from her book.

"Am I scrawny?" I asked. She frowned.

"Should it matter?" She wondered.

"I guess not but just answer." I sighed.

"Well no not really, you just spend so much time in the forest you have more bone and muscle than anything, like your mom." She shrugged.

"Okay. Thanks." I nodded though not really sure what this answer meant.

Later that night as I was falling asleep I realized I really did have a home. I never had one before; I had a house but no home._ I like my home, and I'm never leaving_ I decided. _Maybe, life will be peaceful from here on out._

**_Yeah right. _**

The End (For the time being…)

* * *

**Okay be honest did you like it? If you didn't that's okay too. Anyway I have finished par IV of this series (Saga? Tale?) and am starting part V but those won't be up for a long time, I fly out in two weeks and from there it will be a month and a half until I can update again, just be on the look out for more info on the next one. Shamrock's story wouldn't be possible with out people reading it. To be honest I would have kept writing even if no one was reading it because he's got a story to tell and he won't let me out of his clutches until I tell it. **

-To Thine Own Self Be True101


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